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BBC Monitoring South Asia - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


June 24, 2017 Saturday


Paper urges host countries not to deport Afghan refugees


LENGTH: 821 words


Editorial entitled "Afghanistan and problem of deporting refugees" by private Daily Afghanistan published on 21 June

Addressing an event on the occasion of the World Refugee Day, the Afghan minister of refugees and repatriation said that the situation in Afghanistan is not suitable for the return of the Afghan refugees. He said that due to worsening security and economic crisis, the Afghan refugees are reluctant to return to their country. Meanwhile, he called on the host countries to process the immigration documents of the Afghan refugees in line with the current security situation in the country and review the decision on forced deportation of the Afghan refugees.

Afghanistan is a war-torn country and has experienced continued war for the past four decades. Over one million people have been killed and over six million Afghans have immigrated to other countries. 

According to the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation currently around 5.6 million Afghan refugees are living in other countries across the world and most of these refugees are living in Iran and Pakistan. Last year, Pakistan and Iran deported a number of Afghan refugees and the European countries have also decided to deport those Afghan refugees whose asylum cases have been rejected. The deportation of Afghan refugees from the European countries still continues. Moreover, following an upsurge in Taliban operations last year, thousands of families were displaced in Konduz, Sar-e Pol, Fariab, Baghlan, Takhar, Badakhshan, Nangarhar and Helmand.

The return of thousands of Afghan refugees from abroad as well as massive displacement of people is other factors which have put tremendous pressures on the government. While the government as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] have not been able to extend the necessary support to the repatriate refugees and thousands of displaced people, how can they respond to the needs of thousands of new repatriated refugees?

Afghanistan is facing with serious security and economic problems which contributed to an increase in unemployment rate. Therefore, the return of new groups of refugees would add to the challenges facing the Afghan government. Part of these challenges includes an increase in criminal rates.

It is true that brain drain affects the economic developments in the country and it is considered a big blow to the country's economic development. However, if the government does not have the capacity to provide job opportunities for these people, it is even more dangerous to control them. Therefore, taking the current security and economic situation into account, it is not advisable for the Afghan government to receive more refugees.

The government should take a realistic approach in dealings with the refugee crisis. Emotional and patriotic stances by the government cannot address the problems of refugees. It is a reality that the government is not in the control of over 30 per cent of the country's territory. The situation is volatile in the areas controlled by the government and people continue to suffer from organized criminal activities as well as terrorist attacks, including suicide attacks and roadside explosions.

A number of the refugees who have returned to the country have lost their lives or were wounded in the terrorist attacks. The world countries to stand in solidarity with Afghanistan or they should be held responsible for forced deportation of the refugees. The world countries should take the human rights principles and the international conventions on refugees into consideration. The situation in Afghanistan should be taken into consideration while process the asylum-seeking cases for the Afghan refugees.

In fact, the European countries should pay attention to the problems and threats the Afghans go through and they should not only take their interests into consideration.

It is one of the core duties of the UNHCR to ensure safety and security of the refugees and the sufferings the Afghan refugees have gone through should be taken into consideration.

Actually, there is no justification for forced deportation of Afghan refugees. It is neither justified from the security point of view nor from the economic point of view. The repatriated refugees do not have access even to the basic life facilities. Taking the stated facts into account, it is the responsibility of the Afghan government, particularly of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, to convince those countries that have adopted a policy of deportation of the Afghan refugees to review this policy and stop forced deportation of the refugees immediately.

Of course, the role of the UNHCR is quite important and it is its responsibility to get into negotiation with the host countries and ask them to stop deportation of Afghan refugees in line with the international and human rights principles.

Source: Daily Afghanistan, Kabul, in Dari and Pashto 21 Jun 17


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FinancialWire


February 8, 2017 Wednesday


Genocide Survivor's Refugee Fund Receives Recognition From Massachusetts Senate


LENGTH: 682 words


Genocide survivor and leading motivational speaker and award-winning author Clementine Bihiga's Clarette Refugee Fund has received recognition from Massachusetts Senate. The Fund aims to build food pantries in refugee schools around the world

Worcester, Massachusetts - February 7, 2017 - An unprecedented 21.3 people are refugees at present, and Trump's recent insensible ban on refugees of 7 countries is all aggravate the problem further. But still in the midst of this staggering global refugee crisis, here comes a ray of hope!
 



A brave genocide survivor-turned-motivational speaker Clementine Bihiga has received recognition for her humanitarian Clarette Refugee Fund from the Massachusetts Senate. The refugee fund is dedicated to building food pantries in refugee schools around the world.

Added to the Congratulations from the Massachusetts Senate, Bihiga's refugee fund has also earned Certificate of Excellence from Women In Action and Certificate of Special Mayoral Recognition.

"It's a great moment for all of us to receive recognition from the State Senate and other esteemed organizations like Women In Action for our Clarette Refugee Fund. In the wake of aggravated refugee crisis worldwide, it is an urgent need for all of us to actively come forward in support of the homeless who have been unmindfully forced away from their homes and our Refugee Fund is committed to standing by the refugees to ensure a better and quality living for them. Proper schooling is an extremely important part of an overall development which is badly hampered by forced homelessness. Thus, our refugee fund is aimed to support the refugee schools with the basics so that these can ensure a standard life for all their refugees," stated Clementine Bihiga.

Clementine Bihiga herself has been a refugee from Rwanda when her family was forced out of her homeland during the outbreak of the catastrophic 1994 Genocide that killed 800,000 people in just three months. A struggler and fighter since her childhood, she had stayed at several refugee camps for years and knows the pains and traumas of refugees' first-hand. She is an author of a book called "Happily Broken: Discovering Happiness Through Pain and Suffering" which tells the story of her life.

"I know what it feels to live the life of an exile and how painful it is to wake up among the dead. The period of my life as a refugee was the chief inspiration behind Refugee Fund as I attempt to make lives little better for those innocent, helpless people," continued Bihiga, who is now an award-winning author and highly regarded motivational speaker sought after by corporations, organizations and schools across the nation.

Clarette Refugee Fund is dedicated to helping out the refugee students, staff and their families by providing the essential support needed to have a proper school and education. It works to achieve this through building the food/supply pantries for one refugee school at a time. Presently, it's working for a school named "Kabiria" which Clementine herself attended as a young girl in Kenya.

The school, which enrolls refugees from Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, shows an utterly dilapidated condition and has little or no money to arrange for adequate food, clothing and educational supplies for students and teachers.

"Kabiria's pantry immediately needs all kinds of educational supplies along with food supplies, toiletries, shoes and clothing. The school has had no sponsor since 2005 and immediately needs around $ 6,000 for standard renovation. Clarette Refugee Fund is looking forward to bettering up the situation here, and your generous and active participation would be of great help," added in Bihiga.

To get involved in Bihiga's humanitarian efforts to uplift refugees, visit: www.clementinebihiga.com

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/VGl3J4V1JMg

Media Contact

Company Name: Clarette Refugee Fund

Contact Person: Clementine Bihiga

Email: Info@clementinebihiga.com

Phone: 774-203-9916

City: Pawtucket

State: RI

Country: United States

Website: http://www.clementinebihiga.com





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PR Newswire Europe


June 27, 2017 Tuesday 10:51 AM EST 


Global Initiative Brings Canada's Refugee Sponsorship Model to the World


LENGTH: 666 words


DATELINE: NEW YORK, June 27, 2017


The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative announced the launch of a global consultation process for a guidebook that will help governments and citizens develop community-based sponsorship programs to resettle refugees.

Photo -https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/528299/Global_Refugee_Sponsorship_Students.jpg

The global refugee crisis is one of the world's most pressing problems. The number of refugees today is higher than at any time since the Second World War. The scale and urgency of the situation requires innovative solutions. 

The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI), an international multi-stakeholder initiative building global capacity and support for community-based refugee resettlement, was launched in 2016. Led by the Government of Canada, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the University of Ottawa, the Radcliffe Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations, it is inspired by Canada's private sponsorship program-through which individual citizens have offered protection and support to nearly 300,000 refugees since 1979. GRSI works to raise awareness of this model and help other countries develop their own sponsorship programs.

Earlier this month, GSRI participated in UNHCR's Annual Tri-Partite Consultations on Resettlement in Geneva, where the initiative engaged with representatives of countries from around the world. The outreach in Geneva followed a successful meeting of over 30 European stakeholders in Brussels in April, and a three day visit to Ottawa by representatives from Chile, Brazil, and Argentina in May.

During the Geneva events, GRSI launched its website,http://www.refugeesponsorship.org, and began a global consultation process to develop a guidebook aimed at supporting states and civil society organizations interested in piloting community-based sponsorship programs in their countries and communities. The guidebook will be released to the public in September 2017.

The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that there are over 1.2 million refugees in critical need of resettlement. GRSI seeks to increase and improve refugee resettlement around the world; strengthen host communities; and advance public discourse around refugees and other new arrivals by empowering local actors. By promoting this innovative and effective approach to resettlement, the initiative aims to empower countries and communities to become directly involved in finding solutions for today's 22.5 million refugees.

About the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative

The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative was announced in September 2016 following the UN Summit for Refugee and Migrants 2016 and officially launched in December 2016 in Ottawa, Canada. The initiative is a partnership of the Government of Canada, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the University of Ottawa, the Radcliffe Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. For media inquiries, please contactinfo@refugeesponsorship.org

For more information:

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
http://www.cic.gc.ca/
facebook.com/CitCanada
twitter.com/CitImmCanada
instagram.com/CitImmCanada

Open Society Foundations
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/
facebook.com/OpenSocietyFoundations
twitter.com/opensociety
instagram.com/opensocietyfoundations

Radcliffe Foundation
http://radcliffefoundation.org/
facebook.com/RadcliffeFoundation
twitter.com/radcliffefdn
instagram.com/radcliffefdn

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
http://www.unhcr.org/
facebook.com/UNHCR
twitter.com/Refugees

University of Ottawa
http://www.uottawa.ca/
facebook.com/uottawarefugeehub
twitter.com/RefugeeHub

Additional information:

Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative promotes Canada's private refugee sponsorship modelMedia Advisory - Canada to Host High-Level Meeting of Global Refugee Sponsorship InitiativeNews Release - Canada, UNHCR & the Open Society Foundations Seek to Increase Refugee Resettlement through Private SponsorshipBackgrounder: Canada's Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 26, 2017 Thursday 12:16 PM GMT 


World will suffer 'vacuum of leadership' if Trump refugee ban goes ahead, charities warn;
Advocates say the expected announcement suspendingall refugee arrivals will have a 'global knock-on effect'


BYLINE: Will Worley


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 814 words


Charities have warned of a global "knock-on effect" if Donald Trump goes ahead with a temporary ban on refugees entering the US, as the withdrawal of American leadership on refugee action createsa "vacuum of leadership".

The Presidentis expected to announce a 120-day banby way of an executive order later on Thursdayin a move that hasprompted"extreme alarm" among refugee advocates, who areaskinghim to reconsider. 

Mr Trump is also expected to ban immigration and the issuing ofvisasforpeople from seven Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and African countries.

Read more

The Jewish synagogue seeking to house Muslim refugees on its premises

The USresettles more refugees than any other country, according to the NGOs, taking in two thirds of resettlements in the world in 2015.

Humanitarians have expressed fears that a sudden lack of US leadership could have disastrous impacts on the protection ofrefugees.

"President Trump's plans to pull up the drawbridge and leave refugees trapped in danger are extremely alarming," the British Refugee Council's Anna Musgrave told

The Independent

.

"We can't let our humanity be undermined by fear. We all know that refugees who arrive in the US through resettlement schemes are among the most rigorously vetted people in the country.

"What's even more disturbing is the fact that the US currently resettles more refugees than any other country in the world and has led the way in coordinating a global effort to ensure more refugees are able to find safety."

The Council voiced concerns about the world-wide "knock on effect" Mr Trump's actions would have and particularly the example it would set.

Refugee crisis: More than 500 migrants rescued in single day in Mediterranean Sea

Ms Musgrave said: "Global leaders must lead by example by offering safe haven, rather than turning their backs on refugees and leaving the job to others.

"With this new vacuum in leadership it's vital that other countries, including Britain, step forward and ensure that men women and children who are running for their lives are offered safe haven."

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is the main organisation working to resettle refugees within the US.

David Miliband, President of the IRC and former UK Foreign Secretary, said: "The IRCis very concerned by the reports of new restrictions on refugee resettlement into the USand calls on the administration to take its time and think again.

"Refugee resettlement is an American success story. For decades people have looked to the USas a beacon of political as well as religious freedom. The IRC is proud to have resettled 400,000 refugees into the USsince World War II."

Citingrecord-breaking levels of refugee flow around the world, Mr Miliband said now was "not the time" for America to renounce its historic leadership role.

"Our clear message to the new administration is: now is no time for hasty action," he added. "Talk to us and the experts in your own government to develop a policy that builds on America's success rather than undermines it."

Another organisation, Help Refugees, warned of the "devastating" impact if the US becomes closed off to refugees.

Read more

Trump opens door to reviving CIA 'black site' prisons

The six things Donald Trump has done in his first few days in office

Trump accused of breaking the law on greenhouse gas emissions

Army Twitter account praises refugees as Donald Trump prepares ban

Donald Trump is releasing 'propaganda' from the White House press offi

A statement released by the charity said: "Refugees are, by definition, people seeking sanctuary from some of the most horrific circumstances and it is the duty of compassionate and progressive nations to accept their fair share. Banning refugees on the basis of their religious beliefs is abhorrent.

"Halting resettlement of refugees will not, contrary to Trump's assertions, make America safer. On the contrary it will force people into the hands of traffickers and make the vigorous systems currently in place to vet refugees entering the US completely defunct."

Among many others, Mr Trump's executive order threatens a refugee resettlement deal with Australia signed late last year, and could leave more than 1,000 asylum seekers in limbo.

"We already didn't have much hope the US would accept us," Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian refugee who has spent more than three years on Manus island, told

Reuters

. "If they do not take us, Australia will have to."

The US agreed to resettle an unspecified number of refugees being held in Papua New Guinea and the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru on Australia's behalf, under a deal to be administered by the UN refugee agency.

"Any substantial delay in the relocation of refugees...would be highly concerning from a humanitarian perspective," said Catherine Stubberfield, a spokeswoman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"These men, women and children can no longer afford to wait."


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The Guardian


January 30, 2017 Monday 7:59 PM GMT 


US travel ban puts 20,000 refugees in 'precarious circumstances', UN says;
UN refers 'the most vulnerable' to governments for resettlement, refugee chief said, adding that more than 800 people had been set to arrive in US this week


BYLINE: Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 601 words


The United Nations refugee chief has expressed alarm at the scale of Donald Trump's order barring the arrival of refugees, saying it placed 20,000 people who were expecting resettlement in the US in "precarious circumstances".

"Refugees... are fleeing war, persecution, oppression and terrorism," said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "The individuals and families UNHCR refers to governments for resettlement are the most vulnerable - such as people needing urgent medical assistance, survivors of torture, and women and girls at risk. The new homes provided by resettlement countries are lifesaving for people who have no other options."  

Late on Friday, the Trump administration issued a temporary ban on the entry of Syrian, Sudanese, Somalian, Iraqi, Yemeni, Iranian and Libyan nationals to the United States in an executive order that he said was prompted by security concerns.

Related: 'Totally wrong': Houston's Iraqis and Syrians react to Trump's travel ban

The move also suspended arrivals by all refugees for 120 days and stopped the resettlement of Syrian refugees indefinitely, even though those who were expected to arrive in the US had already undergone an arduous vetting process that could take up to two years.

"This week alone, over 800 refugees were set to make America their new home, but instead find themselves barred from travelling to the US," Grandi said. "UNHCR estimates that 20,000 refugees in precarious circumstances might have been resettled to the United States during the 120 days covered by the suspension announced Friday, based on average monthly figures for the last 15 years. Refugees are anxious, confused and heartbroken at this suspension in what is already a lengthy process."

Refugee agencies have expressed alarm at the move in recent days, saying it violated international norms and refugee conventions. The US has taken in far fewer Syrian refugees in particular than countries neighboring war-torn Syria, and even European nations like Germany and Sweden.

The US has resettled 18,000 Syrian refugees. Turkey has taken in approximately three million Syrian refugees and Lebanon, which had a pre-war population of four million people, has received 1.5 million Syrians who fled the fighting in their home country.

The number of refugees in Lebanon per capita would be equivalent to the US taking in roughly 63 million refugees.

"The decision to halt resettlement would not only be detrimental to the safety and livelihoods of Syrians currently waiting to be resettled, but also harmful to Syrian refugees who have already been resettled in the US. Such a policy is antithetical to American values and humanitarian principles, and we urge the president to reconsider," the Chicago-based Syrian Community Network, which supports resettled refugees, said in a statement.

"This act would bar Syrian refugees, and refugees from other nationalities, from taking refuge in the land that was built on the premise of being open to people who are fleeing persecution and violence," the statement added.

Carolyn Miles, the head of Save the Children, said that women and children under 12 make up two-thirds of Syrian refugees in the US.

"Now is not the time to turn our back on these families, or our core American values, by banning refugees," she said. "We can protect our citizens without putting even more barriers in front of those who have lost everything and want to build a better future in America."

"The reality is that the US refugee resettlement program saves lives... while helping to ensure the safety of our country," she said.


LOAD-DATE: January 30, 2017


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Express Online


February 6, 2017 Monday 5:19 PM GMT 


ISIS recruiting refugees by offering '$1000 and safe passage to Europe'


BYLINE: Ross Logan


LENGTH: 716 words


ISLAMIC State is recruiting refugees by offering vulnerable people hundreds of pounds and a safe passage to Europe if they join the terrorist group, a British think-tank has said.

GETTY/EXPRESS

ISIS are ecruiting desperate migrants y iffering the cash and free travel to Europe

A study by counter-extremism group Quilliam revealed ISIS is exploiting desperate and underage asylum seekers attempting to make the journey across the Mediterranean with the promise of cash and free travel.  

The report also says extremists have infiltrated refugee centres and mosques in Germany in a bid to radicalise disillusioned new arrivals already suffering from "a lack of belief in the host country".

The fact that ISIS is even suspected of recruiting refugees on their way to Europe ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, Quilliam said, as it increases the burgeoning anti-immigrant sentiment within Europe and reinforces the narrative Daesh uses to recruit refugees. 

By analysing refugee policies and mapping the journeys taken by refugees towards Europe, Quilliam has produced the first report pinpointing the moments where young refugees are most vulnerable to recruitment by extremists. 

Related articles Migrants in Greece go on hunger strike in protest at camp conditions Scuffles break out as refugees block minister from visiting camp

The report said: "While some refugees may have to pay smugglers up to $560 for passage towards the Mediterranean coast, IS, capitalising on this route, offer free passage to those willing to join IS. 

"IS is able to provide a degree of security. The financial lure is ever-present on the refugee journey - to those reaching the Mediterranean coast, IS offer potential recruits up to $1,000 to join the organisation. 

"IS is clearly aware of the value of these refugee routes for the purposes of recruitment and for exporting their operatives into Europe. 

"Aside from potentially facilitating access to Europe for IS fighters, the suspicion created by the mere possibility of this is likely to increase xenophobic and anti-refugee sentiment in Europe, reinforcing the narratives that IS uses to recruit both refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and from Muslim communities in Europe and the West."

GETTY

Quilliam said young unaccompanied refugees were vulnerable to extremist recruiters

Smugglers and people traffickers were also a threat, the report said, with more than 90 per cent of refugees arriving in the EU using some form of "illegal enterprise" en-route. 

This, Quilliam claimed, was "a direct consequence of the fortification of European borders and the small numbers of refugees resettled in the EU directly from refugee camps."

Unaccompanied minors were particularly at risk of recruitment by extremists, as well as sexual exploitation. 

The report said so far 10,000 unaccompanied refugee children had disappeared since arriving in Europe, "many of whom are thought to have fallen into the hands of the very same criminal organisations that brought them into the continent". 

Quilliam also criticised the treatment of young refugees arriving in the UK.

GETTY

ISIS has infiltrated refugee camps and mosques in Germany to recruit new members

It urged the Government to "treat children as children first" and not as asylum seekers. 

"By treating children as asylum seekers, the UK is not fulfilling its obligation to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the country," the group concluded. 

Mark Brennan, UNESCO Chair in Community, Leadership, and Youth Development said: "Quilliam makes a remarkable contribution to our understanding and efforts to take positive action. 

"This report documents in great detail the complexity of the problem, the scope of the youth refugee crisis, and provides a rigorous analysis of the settings, and potential processes, where refugee youth may be drawn into extremist activities. 

"This document serves as a critical resource for those seeking to understand the refugee crisis, and a vital reference for policy makers who must create balanced, effective, and evidence informed policies."

Related articles Doctors Without Borders blast 'delusional' EU's Libyan migrant deal Hundreds of ISIS jihadi suspects arrested during RADICAL crackdown ISIS terrorists kill children in the Iraqi villages laced with mines


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FinancialWire


June 23, 2017 Friday


Foreign Minister Gabriel on the UN Solidarity Summit on Refugees in Uganda


LENGTH: 850 words


BERLIN, Germany -- Foreign Minister Gabriel issued the following statement in Berlin today (22 June) on the occasion of the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees, which is taking place in Kampala today and tomorrow:

"The civil war in South Sudan has forced a large part of the population to flee their homes. Around 1.9 million South Sudanese people have fled to the neighbouring countries of Uganda, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Congo and the Central African Republic. Over one million people have sought protection and aid in Uganda.
 



This makes Uganda the biggest refugee-hosting country in Africa. Uganda is a country whose population already faces great humanitarian, economic and social challenges. It is continuing to take in refugees from neighbouring countries nevertheless. They are being cared for and even integrated in Uganda with the support of international aid organisations. This model refugee policy needs our support. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Ugandan Government have therefore issued an invitation to a Solidarity Summit in Kampala. The objective is to obtain further urgently needed support from the international community.

The situation of the refugees in Uganda is closely bound up with the development of the humanitarian emergency in South Sudan. We are viewing this with great concern and have increased the Federal Government's humanitarian assistance for South Sudan to around 90 million euros in 2017. We are using this money to support the people suffering in South Sudan and in the affected neighbouring countries, especially Uganda.

Germany will therefore support Uganda's refugee policy with around 50 million euros, of which 14 million euros have been earmarked for humanitarian assistance and 36 million euros for development cooperation.

In view of the suffering of countless people in South Sudan and the burden that the neighbouring countries are bearing, I urgently call on the Government of South Sudan and all adversaries in the region to end their violent clashes and the serious human rights violations against the civilian population without delay. I also call on the governments in the region to support political processes seeking to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict in South Sudan."

Background information:

Uganda is the biggest refugee-hosting country in Africa having now taken in 1,270,000 refugees. Statistics published on the refugee situation around the world (Global Trends 2016), published by UNHCR on 19 June 2017, have found that Uganda is the fourth-largest refugee-hosting country in the world. It has taken in some 1,025,000 refugees from South Sudan since 2013, with the majority of that number arriving after July 2016. Aside from refugees from South Sudan, Uganda is hosting almost 320,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Somalia and other countries.

Uganda's refugee policy has a strong focus on development and is held up around the world as a model for the integration of refugees into host communities. Refugees in Uganda enjoy freedom of movement and are given land, seed and tools to help them fend for themselves. Thanks to its exemplary policy, Uganda is among the first countries to implement the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) adopted in 2016 as part of the New York Declaration. Alongside guaranteeing the rights of refugees and ensuring that they receive the humanitarian aid they need, the CRRF sets out approaches to resolving refugee situations in the long term.

Against the backdrop of the dramatic increase in the number of refugees as well as reception capacities that have been exhausted and a general reduction in the availability of land, Uganda's refugee policy is reaching its limits. The drought in many parts of East Africa is sparking further migration to Uganda - including from Kenya.

The Federal Government is supporting the CRRF's comprehensive approach in Uganda with development policy measures and humanitarian assistance. Our policy is helping to ensure that the causes of displacement are tackled and that the absorption capacity of countries and regions taking in refugees is strengthened.

Over the past five years, the Federal Government has increased its budget for humanitarian assistance abroad to ten times the former amount. This makes Germany the world's second-largest bilateral donor of humanitarian aid today. The Federal Foreign Office supported humanitarian aid projects in Africa to the tune of around 1.3 billion euros in 2016. Of these funds, some 307 million euros went to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - more than ever before.

The Federal Foreign Office's contribution to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to support South Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons in South Sudan has been increased from an initial sum of five million to approximately 31 million euros.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Germany - Federal Foreign Office.



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Press Association Mediapoint


April 25, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM BST 


Advisory: First issued under embargo


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 548 words


'TWO-TIER SYSTEM' LEAVING MANY REFUGEES DESTITUTE, POLITICIANS WARN

By David Hughes, Press Association Chief Political Correspondent

Thousands of refugees in the UK run the risk of homelessness and destitution due to a lack of support from the Government, a cross-party report has found. 

People granted refugee status after going through the asylum process receive less support than refugees brought to the UK through Government-led resettlement schemes, the inquiry found.

The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on refugees called for the next government to improve levels of support available for all people who have fled to the UK.

The report found that more than 50,000 refugees have arrived through the asylum route since 2012, while resettlement programmes accounted for fewer than 10,000 people in the same period.

The panel of MPs and peers said a ``two-tier system has developed for refugees'', and criticised a 28-day cut-off period after which support is withdrawn for asylum seekers once their status is confirmed.

The report said: ``Throughout our inquiry we were told by refugees and organisations that support them that the 28-day period - known as the 'move on' period - is too short.

``Coupled with the the lack of support for refugees to navigate the social security system and private housing market, the brevity of the move on period leaves too many newly-recognised refugees homeless and destitute.''

The panel also criticised ``drastic'' cuts in funding for English language courses and said there was a ``regrettable'' lack of a strategy to integrate refugees in the UK.

The report recommends the incoming government appoints a new cross-department minister for refugees to oversee a new strategy.

The APPG's chairwoman, Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire, said: ``A refugee is a refugee however they were granted status. Most will want to return home when conflict is over and in the meantime want to contribute to this country.

``These are often skilled professionals and, by definition, they all have strength and determination to offer.

``But there are administrative flaws in the system which could be easily fixed. Creating a two-tier system for refugees, loading the dice against people who come here to build a new life, is not just the wrong thing to do, but a costly missed opportunity for Britain.

``The UK can learn from the positive examples of the resettlement programme and the Scottish integration scheme to enable refugees to contribute and feel welcomed. Refugees bring so many talents and skills - they just need the opportunities to unlock their potential.''

Tory MP David Burrowes, the APPG's vice-chairman, said: ``For too many refugees, being granted their status is the beginning of a period characterised by homelessness and destitution. Protection must mean more than just a piece of paper.''

Stephen Hale, chief executive of charity Refugee Action, said: ``This report is a timely wake-up call. The new government must seize the opportunity to enable all refugees in Britain, regardless of how they arrive, to successfully rebuild their lives.

``English language classes are critical to this. All parties should commit to increase funding for this in the next parliament, so that refugees' skills and experiences can enrich our culture and benefit our economy.''


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March 28, 2017  
First Edition


It doesn't have to be like this...;
Our system for helping refugees is broken, and even those who survive are condemned to lives of misery. But the world can help if we take these bold steps, argue experts Alexander Betts and Paul Collier


BYLINE: Alexander Betts and Paul Collier


SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 30


LENGTH: 1795 words


And still they die in their hundreds. Another boat-load of refugees and migrants, 250 or more of them hoping to make it from Africa to Europe, are thought to have drowned in the Mediterranean last week after two partially submerged dinghies were found.

A combination of state fragility - in countries such as Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan - and increased opportunities for mobility has intensified refugee movements and made for one of the big policy challenges of the 21st century - not to mention a deadly risk for the people involved.

More humans are displaced from their homelands around the world than at any time since the Second World War - and with the spectre of climate change, the numbers will grow.

Yet while the needs increase, the political commitment to assisting refugees is in freefall amid rising populist nationalism. The European refugee crisis offered a test case to see whether our policies have been up to the task. And they demonstrably failed. 

Declaring "Wir schaffen das" - or, we'll manage it - the German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her country's doors. But just six months later, recognising her approach was unsustainable, she performed a U-turn by conspiring with the European Union and Turkey to close the Balkans and the Aegean Sea routes to Syrians.

The legacy of Europe's muddled response has been far-reaching. Nine thousand people have drowned crossing the Mediterranean while nationalism has been emboldened.

It does not need to be this way. With better political leadership, we could reform our refugee policies in ways that meet the challenge sustainably at the scale required. Here are 10 steps that we urgently need to take.

1) FOCUS ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES The real challenge is not in Europe. Only 10 per cent of refugees are in developed countries, and the focus on Europe has led us to neglect a parallel crisis: the dire situation of the 90 per cent of the world's refugees in developing regions. More than 60 per cent of refugees are in just 10 safe-haven countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan, Tanzania and Chad. This is where we find the most vulnerable people. And yet for every £1 of public money spent by donor states on an asylumseeker who reaches Europe, we spend less than 1p on a refugee in a neighbouring host country.

This neglect has led to declining conditions that are bad for refugees, create insecurity and contribute to onward movement. We need a massive increase in our development assistance contributions to those countries to make refuge sustainable.

2) CLARIFY THE PURPOSE OF REFUGE In Europe and the US, refuge has become unnecessarily bound up with politically toxic debates relating to "migration" and "globalisation".

Properly understood, though, refuge is about something quite different: offering safe haven to people fleeing danger, and restoring their lives to normality as quickly as possible.

Refuge should mean providing three things: rescue and meet-ing immediate needs; autonomy by empowering people to help themselves through jobs and education; and an eventual route out of limbo by ensuring people can go home, or receive resettlement elsewhere if it becomes clear that going home is not likely to be an option in the foreseeable future.

For most people, these purposes can be fulfilled close to home and should not require long and dangerous journeys. And the majority do not want to be migrants; when the UN Refugee Agency surveyed Syrian refugees about resettlement in Canada, more than 70 per cent said they preferred to stay closer to home.

3) MOVE BEYOND REFUGEE CAMPS The humanitarian system's default response remains camps. These offer life-saving basics such as food, clothing and shelter. But they are often dehumanising, usually denying the right to work and freedom of movement. People get stuck in them for decades.

A response designed just for the emergency phase can endure. Kenya's Dadaab camps, for example, opened in 1992 and host 350,000 Somalis - a significant proportion of whom have been there ever since the camps were created.

Unsurprisingly, a majority of refugees bypass camps entirely. And they are left with two equally problematic alternatives: to go to cities, where they give up assistance and often face destitution; or to embark on perilous journeys with people smugglers.

4) ALLOW REFUGEES TO WORK Refugees have skills, talents and aspirations. And yet, around the world, they face severe restrictions on the right to work. This undermines autonomy and dignity, and erodes people's ability to help themselves and contribute to their host societies.

The evidence shows that when refugees are given access to labour markets, it leads to "winwin" outcomes for both them and their hosts.

Uganda, now host to around 1 million refugees, lets them work and register businesses. A recent study by Oxford University showed that 21 per cent of refugees in Uganda's capital, Kampala, run a business that employs at least one other person - and, of those they employ, 40 per cent are host country citizens.

Many developing countries are unwilling to let refugees work because they fear displacing citizens from jobs. So development assistance and business investment are needed to create incentives for host countries to open their labour markets. The UK Government is supporting pilot projects to do just that in special development areas in Jordan and Ethiopia.

5) ENSURE ROUTES OUT OF LIMBO People should not spend their lives as refugees. Ideally, they will be able to go home. But sometimes this is not possible within a reasonable timeframe. Three years of uncertainty may be reasonable; a decade is not.

Once people have been in a safehaven country beyond a certain "cut-off" time, they should be permanently integrated somewhere - whether in that country or another one.

Resettlement - moving people from camps to a neighbouring country - is currently available to less than 2 per cent of refugees, and it is not used strategically.

Countries need to work together to ensure that resettlement or alternative legal migration options are available - above all to those refugees whose lives have been put on hold indefinitely.

6) INCUBATE POST-CONFLICT RECOVERY How we treat refugees while they are in exile will shape what they do when they go home. If we can give them access to jobs and education in safe-haven countries, they will be better placed to return home and contribute to reconstruction once the conflict ends.

For example, companies such as Caterpillar, Benetton and Sony were forced to withdraw from Syria - but why shouldn't they continue to employ Syrians on the other side of the Jordanian border and then relocate back when the war ends? Similarly, if we enable refugees to work while they are in exile, they may build businesses they can take back to their country of origin later on.

7) SEND PEOPLE BACK HUMANELY Our refugee policies can only be effective against the backdrop of an effective immigration system.

There is no universal right to migrate. But refugees have a right to migrate insofar as it is necessary in order to reach safety. Ideally, this will happen close to home, but occasionally it may not. In these rare instances, we have to offer asylum as a last resort.

To sustain public confidence, our immigration system has to welcome those who are refugees but, for whatever reason, have not found safe haven nearer to home. But it must also devise ways to provide humane returns for those who either are not refugees or have already found adequate protection elsewhere.

Our current return-and-reintegrate policies are not always humane or effective, and too often we seek migration partnerships with governments that are not capable of ensuring the human rights of refugees or migrants.

8) DON'T RELY ON THE UN REFUGEE CONVENTION 1951 We have an international treaty that defines refugees and sets out their rights. But it was created for a different era - post-Second World War Europe - and it is now of declining relevance.

More than half the world's refugees are in countries that are not full signatories. Elsewhere, including in Europe, there is systemic non-compliance with the treaty.

Furthermore, even when it is applied, its interpretation throws up inconsistent outcomes: if you are an Eritrean, you have a 24 per cent chance of being recognised as a refugee in France - and a 100 per cent chance in Sweden.

This inconsistency stems from the fact that refugee definition no longer being appropriate. It shoehorns today's drivers of displacement into the old definition of a refugee as fleeing "persecution" - when, in reality, most people today flee state fragility and armed conflict.

9) REFORM THE UN REFUGEE AGENCY The world needs a United Nations refugee agency to facilitate collective action by governments. But the current models of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) need to be updated.

In many contexts, the organisation is absent. In Turkey, for example, the largest refugee-hosting country in the world, fewer than 10 per cent of Syrian refugees get any assistance from the UNHCR or its operational partners.

The agency is very good at running refugee camps and providing legal advice to states. But these are no longer the key skills needed to ensure refugee protection. The skills needed today are economic and political analysis - and yet the UNHCR has limited professional competence in these areas.

Few UN organisations can change from within - there are too many vested interests - and so the push for reform needs to come from donor governments.

10) ADDRESS ROOT CAUSES The main cause of displacement today is state fragility. More than 50 per cent of refugees come from just three such countries.

However, the international community has a poor track record in rebuilding fragile states.

Many such governments have been through successive periods of internal armed conflict, leading to the repeated waves of internal and cross-border displacement.

Emerging drivers of displacement, such as climate change, will disproportionately exacerbate refugee movements insofar as they affect already fragile states.

If the world is serious about ending displacement, it will need to find better ways to bring peace and stability to situations such as the Syrian conflict.

Alexander Betts is professor of forced migration and international affairs, and Paul Collier is professor of economics and public policy - both at the University of Oxford. They will be giving a How To: Academy talk at the Emmanuel Centre in central London on Thursday to mark the release of their book 'Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System' (Allen Lane, £20)

Refuge has become bound up with toxic debates on 'migration'

When refugees get access to labour markets, it is a 'win-win' for both them and their hosts


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The Guardian(London)


June 22, 2017 Thursday 7:00 PM GMT 


Australia's refugee capital 'shows what the country can do';
Fairfield in Sydney's west has resettled roughly half of all humanitarian migrants to arrive in the past 10 years. 'We'll always open our arms,' its mayor says


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 1147 words


The success of the city that has accepted more refugees than any other in Australia shows the country can, and should, resettle more refugees, the New South Wales resettlement tsar Dr Peter Shergold has said.

Fairfield city council, in Sydney's west, has resettled roughly half of all humanitarian migrants to Australia over more than a decade.

In the past 18 months it has seen a 500% increase in the resettlement rate, accepting more than 7,000 humanitarian migrants, including the vast majority of those brought to Australia from Iraq and Syria under the federal government's additional settlement program.

Related: Football club that 'saved' disconnected refugees needs fundraising win 

Speaking at the launch of the Fairfield city settlement action plan, Shergold, the NSW coordinator general for refugee resettlement, said the city had offered not only "sanctuary ... but opportunity".

"I'm proud of the fact we are a nation that's taken in more than 500,000 refugees, wave after wave, since the second world war.

"We've made a success of it, and we can make a success of it again ... we can show this is eminently doable. This is not hard, Australia can do this and by doing it, gain benefit. That establishes not just pride, but a strong foundation to say, 'We can take more refugees.'"

But Shergold, formerly the head of Australia's public service, said Australian governments, councils and communities needed to recognise that the refugee resettlement task began, rather than ended, with refugees arriving in Australia.

"Our responsibility does not stop at the moment we say, 'Welcome to Australia, you're here'- that's just the start. The challenge we face is how we help refugees to help themselves, because that's what they want.

"What do you want if you're a refugee? You want to be self-reliant. And our job is to help make that possible and, in doing so, to help refugees, as they have done, generation after generation, give back to our nation.

"Once we've accepted them, we've got to do our utmost to help them, to help them integrate into our multicultural society, to help get their children through our education system, and to help their adults find an Australian job."

Shergold said NSW would continue to take "more than our fair share" of refugees, likely to be between 10,000 and 11,000 this year, and between 6,000 and 8,000 in 2018.

"These are not huge amounts, this is entirely manageable with the kind of planning being done here in Fairfield," Shergold said.

Fairfield's mayor, Frank Carbone, said the city would continue to welcome more refugees: "Our community has told us they are willing to open their arms, open their hearts and open their homes.

"Because we've walked the road before, we understand the challenges refugees face, but we understand the benefits too."

More needs to be provided to make sure that resettlement is done well

Frank Carbone

But Carbone vociferously repeated his call that the city needed greater support from governments, state and federal, to assist in resettling humanitarian migrants. He said Fairfield had an unemployment rate nearly twice the national average - at 9% - and needed further health, education and employment infrastructure.

He said 7,000 people - equivalent to a new suburb - had been transplanted to his city in a year and a half, without sufficient support.

"We're very disappointed with the government's budget ... my community says to me, 'We don't mind refugees coming to our city, we'll always open our arms and we'll take as many as are available but we are disappointed that the government is not providing the infrastructure, we need to make sure our whole community is not impacted.'

"More needs to be provided to make sure that resettlement is done well."

Fairfield city's settlement action plan outlines eight key actions to assist refugees building a new life, centred on health, housing, education and employment.

In September 2015, the then prime minister, Tony Abbott, announced Australia would resettle 12,000 refugees displaced by conflict in Iraq and Syria in an intake additional to Australia's annual humanitarian quota (now 13,750 visas a year but set to rise to 18,750 by 2018-19).

That additional quota has been filled, with the majority of refugees settling in NSW, and the majority of those in Fairfield.

After a slow beginning - during which Australia's program was outstripped by similar additional intakes by the US and Canada - the resettlement program has been largely lauded as a success.

But there are lingering concerns about an apparent preference for Christian refugees. Christians do face persecution in Iraq and Syria - large numbers of Christians have fled both countries - but Muslims, particularly ethnic or sectarian minorities, also face severe persecution and are a much larger population.

Statistics released under freedom of information show that 78% of those resettled from Syria and Iraq between July 2015 and January 2017 identified as Christian.

Christians are less than 0.1% of the Iraqi population and 10% of the Syrian. And Australia's intake is disproportionate too, to the presence of Christians among the region's displaced. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees estimates the number of Christian refugees from Iraq at 15%, from Syria it is less than 1%.

Fairfield's settlement plan was unveiled during Refugee Week, as the UN's refugee agency released its 2016 Global Trends Report showing that 65.6 million people were displaced worldwide at the end of last year, the highest number in history.

Every minute in 2016 20 people were forced from their homes, the UNHCR said.

Related: The young refugees making beautiful murals together

Fifty-one per cent of the world's refugees are children, and 84% of refugees - those forcibly displaced over a national border - are hosted by developing countries, usually close to the one they've been forced to leave.

More than half of the world's refugees came from just three countries: Syria (5.5 million), Afghanistan (2.5 million) and South Sudan (1.4 million).

Australia's immigration department secretary, Mike Pezzullo, said this week more countries needed to contribute to third-country resettlement of refugees.

He said there were fewer than 100,000 places available in the US, Canada and Australia combined, while there were 1 million "resettlement-ready" refugees around the world. Fewer than 1% of refugees are resettled in a third country in any year.

"Globally, something has to happen," Pezzullo said, "the rest of the world needs to step up on the permanent [refugee resettlement] side."

It is countries nearby to conflict and persecution - often themselves facing development challenges, conflict and ill-equipped to host additional populations -that house by far the largest number of refugees.

Turkey now accommodates 2.9 million refugees, Pakistan 1.4 million, and Lebanon 1 million.


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January 30, 2017 Monday


World should aide Afghan government resettle refugees, IDPs, paper


LENGTH: 574 words


Text of report by privately-owned Afghan daily newspaper Mandegar

[World should aide Afghan government resettle refugees, IDPs, paper]

Refugees: a new crisis facing the country

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the international community to assist the government of Afghanistan in the current difficult situation in helping the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the refugees that have returned to Afghanistan. 

Large numbers of Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan returned to Afghanistan under the national unity government. This situation has clearly created challenges for the government. The challenge has come at a time when the government lacks a strategy guiding service delivery and resettlement of the refugees.

The arrival of large numbers of refugees is an addition to the myriad challenges that already exist.

A number of groups within the government are thinking about using the refugees as a vehicle to accumulate wealth by stealing the aid money for the refugees, something that has been experienced multiple times in the past 15 years. Corruption has resulted in the squandering of all resources and revenues without anyone being held accountable during this period.

The other side of the refugee problem especially the refugees returning from Pakistan is that these refugees are treated politically. Under talks with Hezb-e Eslami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, there are talks about building townships for refugees in Pakistan. It is, therefore, possible that hundreds of thousands of Pakistani nationals might be brought to the country as Afghan refugees and settled in special areas.

While struggling with refugees returning from other countries, the government of Afghanistan is also struggling with the issue of IDPs and it seems there is no particular plan to tackle this issue.

At a time when Afghanistan is seeking to solve its refugee issue, the international community should take measures to provide humanitarian assistance and prevent a crisis. But first, the government of Afghanistan should present a specific plan to the international community. The plan should serve as the basis for international aid for refugees in Afghanistan.

Although international aid to Afghanistan has never been conditional on domestic planning as Afghanistan has been supported systematically by major powers under a completely political process, the same does not apply to the refugee issue. The government will have to formulate strategies to resettle the refugees and provide services to them.

In addition, while the government is facing challenges and there is lack of security and employment opportunities in the country, it should not ask refugees to return to the country. Nothing is in order here. If the government fails to act and no external aid is raised or is raised by spent unwisely, new problems will emerge and Afghanistan will descend into a new humanitarian crisis.

The government should invite donors and foreign countries to build townships in different provinces of the country in a balanced fashion. It should take the fundamental steps in this regard and also provide emergency assistance to IDPs.

The arrival of refugees to the country especially from Pakistan is a very complicated and vague issue whose dangerous nobody has contemplated yet. We, therefore, suggest that this matter is heeded as a major and sensitive issue.

[End all]

Source: Mandegar, Kabul, in Dari, 29 Jan 17

Source: Mandegar in Dari 29 Jan 17


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The Guardian(London)


June 20, 2017 Tuesday 7:11 AM GMT 


Refugee hackathons and 3D printing: apps for the world's displaced people;
Smartphones have changed how people flee danger and technology also enables them to respond to the biggest humanitarian crisis since the second world war


BYLINE: Tazeen Dhunna Ahmad


SECTION: VOLUNTARY SECTOR NETWORK; Version:1


LENGTH: 821 words


Smartphones have changed the way people flee.

"Without my smartphone I wouldn't have made it to Germany," explains Bassem*, a young man from Syria.

Maps with directions to border crossings, weather reports, language translators to help refugees communicate with volunteers and locals, and social media, which helps refugees share reliable information with one another - many refugees who might otherwise have perished managed to reach safety thanks to technology.

Related: Live Q&A: How can technology improve humanitarian response? 

The number of mobile phones used in the refugee community is high. In the second largest refugee camp in the world, in Za'atari, Jordan, 86% of young people in the camp owned a mobile phone in 2015, with more than 50% of those using it to access the internet daily.

Technology is also driving the response to the largest humanitarian crisis since the second world war. It is being used to transform conditions and empower more than 22 million refugees worldwide.

Last month, for example, the social enterprise Techfugees hosted a hackathon in Jordan, where more than a third of the population are now refugees. The event brought people together to collaborate and find technology solutions to problems in the camp. It was won by two female Syrian refugees, who used crowdsourcing to identify water leakages in public piping and address the problem of water shortages.

Buoyed by this success, Techfugees is creating an online platform where innovators can pitch their solutions to charities, and charities can request tech help.

This is not just about day-to-day survival. With very limited educational and employment opportunities, there is little future for refugee populations. This is why MIT recently launched the Refugee ACTion Hub (ReACT), to find digital learning opportunities for a lost generation of children who, as a result of forced displacement, are losing their education.

MIT ReACT's founder, Admir Masic, lost everything during the war in the former Yugoslavia and became a teenage refugee. "I had access to a great deal of humanitarian support, such as food, clothes and shelter, but what changed my life was access to education," Masic says.

"Unlike many other kids in my refugee camp, I found an opportunity to prove my talent and that ended up changing my life."

Related: The global tech community tackles the refugee crisis

Now an assistant professor, Masic aims to ensure refugees are given access to quality education and an MIT-certified qualification, creating a strong foundation for them to realise their dreams. It is school and university coming to them.

Last year, the MIT Enterprise Forum pioneered a global initiative to encourage the technological potential of sectors including healthcare and energy through the Innovate for Refugees competition.

At the awards ceremony in October, seven winners were chosen from more than 1,600 applications worldwide. In total, 15% of applicants were refugees, two of whom were among the winners.

One of these was the Lebanese-based Recycle Beirut, a social business taking on two problems - the refugee crisis and the country's waste crisis - at once. The company employs refugees at a living wage to collect, sort and process recyclables in the greater Beirut area.

Another winning idea was Change Water Labs, which uses a revolutionary evaporative toilet to provide refugees with a more dignified and humane experience in unpleasant camp conditions.

A further example of technology supporting refugees is Dan Levin's Refugee Open Ware and Loay Malhameh's 3Dmena. Together, Levin and Malhameh partnered with Syria Relief and the National Syrian Project for Prosthetic Limbs to use 3D printing for prosthetics that are custom-built and cheaper, as well as a prototype cheap echolocation device that allows visually impaired people to navigate their homes.

Related: Is the fourth industrial revolution bad news for migrants and refugees?

Levin and Malhameh are part of a network of not-for-profit technologists, aid workers and entrepreneurs trying to "hack" some of the challenges refugees inside and outside of conflict zones encounter every day, from connecting to the internet to fighting barrel bombs.

"Much of what we're doing," says Levin, "is trying to disrupt the whole nature of humanitarian relief, of civil defence, perhaps even of warfare itself".

*Some names have been changed

Tazeen Dhunna Ahmad is founder of Humanity's Heart, whose film about the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis, Humanity Rising in the Refugee Crisis, is soon to be released

Talk to us on Twitter via @ Gdnvoluntary and join our community for your free fortnightly Guardian Voluntary Sector newsletter, with analysis and opinion sent direct to you on the first and third Thursday of the month.


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China Daily European Edition


June 27, 2017 Tuesday


Key to refugee crisis is enabling homecomings


BYLINE: Shen Yi


SECTION: OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS


LENGTH: 622 words


On June 20, World Refugee Day, Yao Chen, a well-known Chinese actress and a UN Refugee Agency Goodwill Ambassador, was heavily criticized by the public for reportedly "calling on" China to invest more resources to help refugees. Later she claimed reports on her words were rumors, and that through her observation the common wish of the refugees, no matter where they are from, is to go home. The subsequent online debate highlighted the diversified views Chinese people hold on what is a thorny and emotive issue worldwide.

Truly the refugees are suffering hardships and are in great need of help, but there should be a proper approach to helping them, and efforts made to root out the cause of the rapid increase of refugees, which requires the concerted efforts of the international community.  

As Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday at a news conference during his one-day visit to Lebanon, more actions and urgency are necessary to curb the deterioration in the refugee crisis in the Middle East and find a solution as soon as possible. He noted that the refugees are displaced people, not migrants, and the international community should strive to create the conditions for them to return to their homes.

The number of confirmed refugees and displaced people worldwide tripled from 21.9 million in 2000 to 65.6 million in 2016, which makes the problem pressing. As well as civil wars and military conflicts, natural disasters such as tsunamis and droughts, have accelerated the rise in the number of refugees. 

To strike at the root of the problem, the international society needs to invest ample resources in the regions from which refugees fled so that they can go home and resume their lives one day. However, that will take quite a long time, and in the meantime temporary measures are needed to relocate the refugees and provide them with support.

However, how to deal with refugees has divided Western societies in Europe which have had to cope with the influx of a large number of displaced people from strife-torn countries in the Middle East. This has even shaped the agendas of different political parties. Some are trying to mobilize their countries to extend a helping hand to the refugees, and others are trying to prevent them from entering.

There is also a wide gap between the elite and ordinary people on the issue. The elite can stand on the high moral ground as their daily lives are not greatly affected by the inflow of refugees. It is ordinary people that have to adapt to the sudden influx of large numbers of refugees. 

Western media outlets also tend to sensationalize stories about the plight of the refugees or else the security risks they represent. That hinders constructive dialogue on the issue.

What's more, their coverage on the root cause of refugees is far from enough. It's the US' Middle East policy that is the fundamental cause of the chaos and growing terrorism in the war-torn region, with its European allies shouldering the refugee burden that resulted from its actions. Therefore, the international community should actually be calling on the US, which created the problem in the first place to take more responsibility for it.

China needs to stick to its stance that the proper approach is to enable displaced people to return home and rebuild their lives and let the world understand its concern is for the common good of all. As Wang Yi said on Friday, in order to solve the refugee problem we need to treat both the symptoms and the causes, and create the necessary environment for the refugees to return to their homelands, and improve their livelihoods through development and their own efforts.

The author is an associate professor on international studies at Fudan University.


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The Guardian(London)


March 9, 2017 Thursday 6:26 PM GMT 


Refugees applying to live in UK face being sent home after five years;
Home Office quietly announces new policy where those applying for permanent residency face 'safe country review' after five years' limited leave


BYLINE: Alan Travis Home affairs editor


SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 957 words


Tens of thousands of refugees who apply to live permanently in Britain are to be required to undergo an official review to see if it is safe for them to be sent back home, under new Home Office instructions.

The new policy of reviewing whether all refugees still require protection five years after they first obtained asylum in Britain was quietly slipped out on Thursday and it is believed to take immediate effect.

The new instructions were foreshadowed by Theresa May in her notorious "chilling and bitter" 2015 Conservative party conference speech when, as home secretary, she made clear that in future those who secured refugee status in Britain were only being given temporary protection. 

"We'll introduce strengthened 'safe return reviews' - so when a refugee's temporary stay of protection in the UK comes to an end, or if there is a clear improvement in the conditions of their own country, we will review their need for protection. If their reason for asylum no longer stands and it is now safe for them to return, we will seek to return them to their home country rather than offer settlement here in Britain," she told her party conference.

The Home Office instructions make clear that the new safe return reviews will apply in all cases where a refugee applies to settle in Britain after they have completed the required probation period of five years' limited leave. Those who fail to apply will be declared overstayers and be barred from working or claiming benefits and are liable to be removed from the country.

The Home Office website says the Refugee Leave policy document was last updated on 9 March when "a new section" was "included on settlement and the need for a safe return review when considering settlement applications from those granted refugee status".

The instruction says the refugee leave policy is primarily to provide protection and a period of limited leave to those who need it.

It says: "The policy is designed to meet our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and EU law by granting refugee status and an appropriate period of leave to those who need our protection. To maintain a fair immigration system that requires all migrants, including those granted refugee status, to earn the right to settlement, and all the benefits that come with it, by completing an appropriate period of limited leave."

But it also adds that the policy is "to ensure that safe return reviews are carried out so that protection is provided for as long as it is needed, but make clear that those who no longer need protection will need to apply to stay on another basis or leave the UK".

The new policy sparked an immediate warning from the Refugee Council that it threatened the future of refugees in Britain by prolonging the anxious limbo many refugees are forced to endure while their asylum claims are processed by a further five years as they worry about their long-term futures.

Dr Lisa Doyle, of the Refugee Council, said: "This policy will result in refugees who have demonstrated their need for protection being prevented from being able to properly rebuild their lives and being left with the constant fear of return hanging over their heads.

"Actively reviewing individual cases after five years promises to be a costly, bureaucratic and unnecessary nightmare that completely misunderstands the fact that many refugees desperately want to return home of their own accord anyway when it's safe to do so," she said.

Immigration barrister, Colin Yeo, said the previous policy, which had been in place since 2005, was that a refugee would be granted an initial period of limited leave and would be automatically granted settlement when they applied at the end of the period.

"The only exceptions under the old policy were if the refugee engaged in criminal activities or similar or if a ministerial level declaration was made that a particular country was now safe, in which case refugee status for all refugees from that country would be reviewed. No such declarations were ever made under that policy," he said.

More than 59,000 refugees have been granted protection in Britain in the last five years and all will face now face a "safe country review" before they can make a life permanently in Britain.

The Home Office instruction says that the right to stay in Britain may now be refused if there has been "a significant and non-temporary change in country situation", a change in personal circumstances, the refugee has returned to their country of origin or obtained a national passport from that country. They may also be refused if there is evidence the original decision to recognise refugee status was incorrect or any of their dependents have travelled home.

The instruction say that a change in country situation refers to significant and non-temporary events that remove well-founded fears of persecution. Caseworkers are asked to note that the overthrow of one party by another or the election of a new government may not automatically mean there is no longer a risk of persecution.

They are told: "When someone with limited refugee leave applies to extend that leave a safe return review will be carried out. Where they no longer need protection they will not qualify for further refugee leave or settlement protection and will need to apply to stay on another basis or leave the UK. All those granted refugee leave may also have their case reviewed in light of any criminality and such leave may be revoked if they are no longer entitled to protection."

Yeo said that the change in personal circumstances may hit female refugees particularly hard and it may prove difficult to show that a risk of domestic violence or FGM remains five years after their original asylum claim.


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The Independent - Daily Edition


April 25, 2017 Tuesday  
First Edition


Refugees arriving in UK becoming homeless once they're granted asylum


BYLINE: MAY BULMAN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18


LENGTH: 1140 words


Refugees in the UK are being consigned to hunger and homelessness immediately after they are granted asylum, a report has found, in what has been described as a "timely wake-up call" about the plight of refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK.

The research, published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Refugees, shows government policies are creating a costly "two-tier system" of refugee protection, with those who entered the country on government-led resettlement schemes generally provided for, but others often being left homeless and destitute - often damaging their prospects of integration.

A combination of delays and confusion about important paperwork from government departments, a "cliff-edge" of support following a positive decision on refugee status and poor English language provision are leading to refugees who want to contribute their skills and talents to the UK facing a number of barriers, the report warned. It reported "worrying" delays in the issuing of National Insurance numbers - necessary for newly recognised refugees to be able to gain access to finance and housing once their asylum support is ended - which is resulting in newly recognised refugees becoming destitute. 

The 28-day period given to asylum seekers after they are successful in their application before the Home Office stops giving them support - known as the "move on" period - is too short, the report found, with the brevity of the move-on period leaving "too many newly recognised refugees homeless and destitute".

One refugee, Anas from Syria, was left unable to access jobseekers support or secure accommodation after the Home Office made a spelling mistake on his official paperwork, which resulted in him spending five months homeless, jobless and without any financial support. Speaking to researchers, Anas said: "ISIS and Assad mean that it's no longer safe for me at home. When I arrived in Britain I was so thankful to have been offered safety.

"All I wanted was to be a good person and give back to the country which sheltered me - but I couldn't for no better reason than because my paperwork was wrong and it took five months to fix it. I will always be grateful to Britain, but I will never understand a system which stops people like me from getting on my feet and contributing to society."

A programme under the last Labour government, called the Refugee Integration and Employment Service, offered 12 months of support to access housing, education, social security and the job market, but was ended under the coalition government in September 2011. Since then, there has been no government provided support service for refugees who have been through the asylum system.

The report also found that JobCentre staff who are dealing with refugees did not always provide the right information or have awareness of the correct procedures, leading to delays in refugees being able to access support. Refugees also face problems opening bank accounts, frequently as a result of being unable to provide documentation banks ask for, the evidence shows.

Separately, it found that many female refugees were at risk of sexual and gender-based violence once they arrive in the UK, due to being financially dependent on a partner and facing barriers to services such as English language classes. Commenting on the report's findings, Thangam Debbonaire, Labour MP for Bristol West and Chair of the APPG, told The Independent it was "bizarre" that the Home Office was preventing refugees from integrating into society by making it difficult to do simple things like finding accommodation and getting a job.

"If you don't get issued with the five pieces of documentation in time - which few do - you will have a high chance of being destitute without 28 days," Ms Debbonaire said. "There's a huge contrast between the elation that people thought they were going to feel when they were granted asylum, and the fact that immediately they face eviction from their asylum accommodation. They can't apply for benefits, they can't work - they can't do anything.

"These are people who have come here with very little, and haven't been allowed to work up until that point. Then suddenly they're asked to find a flat or accommodation in the private sector. I would struggle in 28 days - and I've got a good job. These are not asylum seekers whose claims are in dispute. These are people who the Home Office has decided are refugees. And that's a really high bar, because they don't grant it easily. To instantly make it hard for those who have been granted asylum to integrate seems bizarre.

"It doesn't help the UK population to feel like they are able to welcome refugees if the refugees themselves aren't in a position to integrate if they want to. British The refugees I met had all gone to enormous lengths to learn English, to try keep up their qualifications or get volunteering experiences. They want to work; they don't want to claim benefits. It doesn't help refugees and it doesn't help the indigenous population - it doesn't make any sense."

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said the report served as a "timely wake-up call" for the Government to help refugees rebuild their lives and avoid "wasting their talents". "The new Government must seize the opportunity to enable all refugees in Britain, regardless of how they arrive, to successfully rebuild their lives," Mr Hale said. "English language classes are critical to this. All parties should commit to increase funding for this in the next Parliament, so that refugees' skills and experiences can enrich our culture and benefit our economy.

"Refugees are determined to learn English and start contributing to their new communities through volunteering, work and socialising with their neighbours. But as the report highlights, they face huge barriers to integration. Our own research shows refugees are waiting up to two years to start English language lessons - this is a shocking waste of their talents."

Alex Fraser, director of Refugee Support at the British Red Cross, meanwhile said: "This report confirms what we see on a daily basis: that all too often, people who have come to the UK after fleeing conflict or persecution are being left destitute and reliant on charity to survive.

"By definition, a refugee has had to leave their home country because their life is in danger. A two-tier system, where refugees who arrive in the UK as asylum seekers are at risk of being left homeless or living hand-to-mouth, is completely at odds with the supportive and welcoming spirit behind the government's Syrian Resettlement Programme.

"No one should be left destitute as a side effect of being granted protection in this country. We strongly encourage the Government to take notice of this report, in particular its recommendation to extend the 'move-on' period* from 28 days."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 25, 2017 Tuesday 12:11 AM GMT 


Refugees arriving in UK immediately becoming homeless once they're granted asylum, report finds;
Delays on important paperwork from Government departments anda 'cliff-edge'of support following positive decisions on refugee statusleading people into destitution, research shows


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 1237 words


Refugees in the UK are being consigned to hunger and homelessness immediately after they are granted asylum, a report has found, in what has been described as a "timely wake-up call" about the plight of refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK.

The research, published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Refugees, shows Government policies are creating a costly "two-tier system" of refugee protection, with those who entered the country on Government-led resettlement schemes generally provided for, but others often being left homeless and destitute - damaging their prospects of integration.

A combination of delays and confusion about important paperwork from Government departments, a "cliff-edge" of support following a positive decision on refugee status and poor English language provision are leading to refugees who want to contribute their skills and talents to the UK facing a number of barriers, the report warned.

Read more 

Thousands of asylum seekers and migrants wrongly denied NHS healthcare

Syrians resettled in UK recognised as refugees by the UK Government

G4S warns asylum seekers 'behave or be deported'

It reported "worrying" delays in the issuing of National Insurance numbers - necessary for newly recognised refugees to be able to gain access to finance and housing once their asylum support is ended - which is resulting in newly-recognised refugees becoming destitute.

The 28-day period given to asylum seekers after they are successful in their application before the Home Office stops giving them support - known as the "move on" period - is too short, the report found, with the brevity of the move-on period leaving "too many newly recognised refugees homeless and destitute."

One refugee, Anas from Syria, was left unable to access jobseekers support or secure accommodation after the Home Office made a spelling mistake on his official paperwork, which resulted in him spending five months homeless, jobless and without any financial support.

Speaking to researchers, Anas said: "Isis and Assad mean that it's no longer safe for me at home. When I arrived in Britain I was so thankful to have been offered safety.

Read more

Syrians resettled in UK recognised as refugees by the UK Government

"All I wanted was to be a good person and give back to the country which sheltered me - but I couldn't for no better reason than because my paperwork was wrong and it took five months to fix it.

"I will always be grateful to Britain, but I will never understand a system which stops people like me from getting on my feet and contributing to society."

A programme under the last Labour government, called the Refugee Integration and Employment Service, offered 12 months of support to access housing, education, social security and the job market, but was ended under the coalition government in September 2011. Since then, there has been no government provided support service for refugees who have been through the asylum system.

The report also found that JobCentre staff who are dealing with refugees did not always provide the right information or have awareness of the correct procedures, leading to delays in refugees being able to access support. Refugees also face problems opening bank accounts, frequently as a result of being unable to provide documentation banks ask for, the evidence showed.

Separately, it found that many female refugees were at risk of sexual and gender based violence once they arrive in the UK, due to being financially dependent on a partner and facing barriers to services such as English language classes.

Commenting on the report's findings, Thangam Debbonaire, Labour MP for Bristol West and chair of the APPG, told

The Independent

it was "bizarre" that the Home Office was preventing refugees from integrating into society by making it difficult to do simple things like finding accommodation and getting a job.

"If you don't get issued with the five pieces of documentation in time - which few do - you will have a high chance of being destitute without 28 days," Ms Debbonaire said.

"There's a huge contrast between the elation that people thought they were going to feel when they were granted asylum, and the fact that immediately they face eviction from their asylum accommodation. They can't apply for benefits, they can't work - they can't do anything.

"These are people who have come here with very little, and haven't been allowed to work up until that point. The suddenly they're ask to find a flat or accommodation in the private sector. I would struggle in 28 days - and I've got a good job.

Read more

G4S warns asylum seekers 'behave or be deported'

"These are not asylum seekers whose claims are in dispute. These are people who the Home Office has decided are refugees. And that's a really high bar, because they don't grant it easily. To instantly make it hard for those who have been granted asylum to integrate seems bizarre.

"It doesn't help the UK population to feel like they are able to welcome refugees if the refugees themselves aren't in a position to integrate if they want to. British The refugees I met had all gone to enormous lengths to learn English, to try keep up their qualifications or get volunteering experiences. They want to work; they don't want to claim benefits.

"It doesn't help refugees and it doesn't help the indigenous population - it doesn't make any sense."

Maurice Wren, the Chief Executive of the Refugee Council, who provide support to the APPG, meanwhile said:"It's unacceptable that the Government treats refugees unequally by offering a relative few the necessary help and support they need to integrate into British life, while simultaneously consigning another much larger group to the high risk of homelessness, hunger and despair.

"These are people who have fled the same bombs and the same bullets; it's vital the Government recognises that they need the same support to begin rebuilding their lives."

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said the report served as a "timely wake-up call" for the Government to help refugees rebuild their lives and avoid "wasting their talents".

"This report is a timely wake-up call. The new Government must seize the opportunity to enable all refugees in Britain, regardless of how they arrive, to successfully rebuild their lives," Mr Hale said.

"Refugees are determined to learn English and start contributing to their new communities through volunteering, work and socialising with their neighbours. But as the report highlights, they face huge barriers to integration. This is a shocking waste of their talents."

Alex Fraser, director of refugee support at the British Red Cross,said: "This report confirms what we see on a daily basis: that all too often, people who have come to the UK after fleeing conflict or persecution are being left destitute and reliant on charity to survive.

"By definition, a refugee has had to leave their home country because their life is in danger. A two-tier system, where refugees who arrive in the UK as asylum seekers are at risk of being left homeless or living hand-to-mouth, is completely at odds with the supportive and welcoming spirit behind the government's Syrian Resettlement Programme.

"No one should be left destitute as a side effect of being granted protection in this country. We strongly encourage the government to take notice of this report, in particular its recommendation to extend the 'move-on' period* from 28 days."


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The Sunday Times (London)


April 23, 2017 Sunday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Solving the refugee issue;
Two experts propose a fresh approach to one of the deining crises of our time CURRENT AFFAIRS


BYLINE: Justin Marozzi


SECTION: CULTURE;FEATURES; Pg. 34,35


LENGTH: 889 words


Refuge Transforming a Broken Refugee System by Alexander Betts and Paul CollierAllen Lane £20 pp288

The United Nations' International Organisation for Migration reported this month that West African migrants were being sold publicly in slave markets in Libya. The daily tragedies from this country alone - Isis fanatics converting female refugees to Islam and selling them as sex slaves, mass drownings in the Mediterranean, the Libyan coastguard in deadly clashes with migrant smugglers - are consistently heartbreaking.

The situation is little better in the eastern Mediterranean, where the implosion of Syria has created a refugee crisis of catastrophic proportions. Approximately m Syrians, almost half that country's population, have been forced to flee their homes. 

Worldwide, the total igure for displaced people is more than m, of whom m are deined as refugees. Half of these are languishing in refugee camps for an average of years, waiting for peace in their homeland. All come from what are euphemistically designated "fragile" countries. Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia account for more than half of the world's refugees.

The central argument of Refuge is that the world's refugee system, designed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War to cope with millions of refugees moving across Europe, is no longer it for purpose. Established in the late s, the underfunded UN High Commissioner for Refugees - backed by the Geneva convention on refugees that focused on individual persecution, rather than the conflict, disorder and state collapse that are today's drivers of refugees - simply cannot cope.

So much for the statistics and diagnosis. What about a route out of this inferno of human suffering? Alexander Betts, a refugee expert at Oxford University, and Paul Collier, an economist, development expert and sometime advisor to British prime ministers, place their emphasis on "pragmatic operational changes on the ground rather than the negotiation of lofty, abstract principles". In other words, they do rather more than wring their hands and plead with the international community to stop wars, ight corruption and lift the world's poor out of poverty.

At the heart of their approach is a call to move away from "the dominant camp-based 'care and maintenance' model" in order to allow refugees to work in their place of refuge. What better proof of the failings of this model, and the need for urgent rethinking, than the Dadaab camps of northern Kenya, where around , Somalis are denied both the right to work and freedom of movement in a de facto incarceration that lasts many years? Far better, surely, as the authors argue, to allow refugees to work and contribute to the economy of their host nation. Evidence is emerging that this radical policy change can bring swift, tangible beneits. Uganda, which hosts more than , refugees and is almost alone in permitting them to work, is one of the more imaginative and progressive examples. In the capital, Kampala, a recent study commissioned by Betts's refugee study centre found that of refugees ran job-creating businesses, with of their employees coming from the host country. This is a world away, in practice and principle, from the typical, autonomystripping refugee camps of Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

There are some encouraging signs that policy makers are listening to this argument. After an invitation to visit Jordan's sprawling Zaatari camp, with its bustling main market street known as the Shams-Elysées, Betts and Collier went to see a £m development zone lying almost empty just minutes away. That led to a pilot project, supported by the king of Jordan, David Cameron and the World Bank, to create , jobs for Syrian refugees. Yes, there are risks of exploitation by foreign multinationals, yes there are problems with special economic zones, but it takes a peculiarly dim critic to reject this new approach in favour of the systematic immiseration of a refugee system that prohibits employment.

Supporting refugees in the neighbouring countries in which they have sought refuge is sensible policy, not the moral dodge its opponents lazily suggest. Of the millions of Syrian refugees, are shared between Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. This is where the problem, and the solutions to it, must ultimately lie, funded much more generously by the world's richest nations. The refugees' present options of "encampment, urban destitution, perilous journey" are shamefully inadequate.

Betts and Collier remind us, in an analysis that is at once compassionate and dispassionate, and full of bold and innovative thinking, that it is just as possible to be soft-hearted and wrong as hard-headed and right. They give short shrift, for instance, to Angela Merkel's open-door policy on Syrian refugees, which has had desperately negative consequences. At a stroke, the German chancellor's "headless heart" policy tore up the EU's Dublin Agreement, under which refugees were bound to apply for asylum in the irst EU country they reached, emboldened Bashar al-Assad, precipitated a mass exodus of Syria's most educated population, and gave a shot in the arm both to people smugglers and Europe's far right, not to mention those campaigning for Brexit.

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

Radical policy changes can bring swift beneits


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BBC Monitoring South Asia - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


February 17, 2017 Friday


UN blamed for supporting Pakistan's forced return of Afghan refugees - paper


LENGTH: 586 words


Text of editorial "UNHCR will have to respond" by Afghan independent secular daily newspaper Hasht-e Sobh on 15 February

The latest report by the Human Rights Watch [HRW] on the nature of the deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is shocking. The report says that prior to the launch of the deportation of Afghan refugees, under the so-called volunteer scheme, neither the Pakistani government nor the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] took into consideration the current security and economic situation in Afghanistan. They even did not assess the Afghan government's capacity in receiving such a huge influx of refugees. [Passages omitted: quoting HRW report] 

The report has also pointed to the behaviour of Pakistani police with the afghan refugees. The Pakistani government has haraased and tortured the Afghan refugees whenever it wanted. However, cooperation of UNHCR with Pakistani government on mass deportation of Afghan refugee is questionable. The HRW has issued its report on deportation of Afghan refugees and at the same time urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees not to remain silent towards Pakistan's forced deportation of the Afghan refugees in 2016. The report has called on UNHCR to condemn the pressures put by Pakistani government on the Afghan refugees.

The report also says that without taking into consideration various problems and threats that the returning Afghan refugees face, UNHCR also tried to encourage them to return to Afghanistan by paying each returnee USD 400. Afghanistan is facing with serious insecurity, dramatic increase in number of internally displaced people as well as high unemployment rate. Therefore, in such a situation how UNHCR agreed with the deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and why UNHCR did not take any measures to prevent forced deportation of the Afghan refugees and why this agency encouraged the return of Afghan refugees in hazardous areas.

Reports on status of the returning Afghan refugees indicate that most of them are not settled in secure areas and they have not received any kind of assistance from the government side. Moreover, the cold weather and heavy snowfalls has faced them with many disasters.

The Afghan government should also take up this issue with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The government is already facing with various challenges and trying to survive in this situation. Therefore, arrival of thousands of unemployed people can have negative consequences for the country's security and economic situation and such arrivals may only strengthen the Taliban and Daesh [Islamic State group] ranks against the government.

Following the departure of thousands of foreign forces from Afghanistan, hundreds of people lost their jobs. The labour market was filled with thousands of unemployed people and the government has not yet been able to address this challenge. Forced deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan added thousands of labourers to the markets in Afghanistan.

The UNHCR should clarify that how it was convinced to agree with forced deportation of thousands of Afghan refugees from Pakistan while the security situation is deteriorating in the country, the economic crisis is deepening and thousands of people have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict across the country. Why the UNHCR has violated the humanitarian principles, left thousands of deported refugees homeless and at high risks.mh

Source: Hasht-e Sobh in Dari 15 Feb 17


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


March 25, 2017 Saturday


Kenyan leader seeks international help for Somali refugees


LENGTH: 940 words


Text of report in English by PSCU entitled "President Kenyatta roots for increased support for Somalia" published by state-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) website on 25 March

President Uhuru Kenyatta Saturday [25 March] made an appeal to the international community to act right to fully bring back Somalia into the fold of the international community of nations as he rooted for durable solutions to the Somali refugees problem.

President Kenyatta said the recent presidential elections in Somalia is the latest indication that Somalia is on the right track thanks to the determination of its people, the commitment by the African Union and the support of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). 

"Indeed, the recent election of President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed is the latest and clearest indication of the progressive success of our collective efforts, alongside the brave people of Somalia," President Kenyatta said.

President Kenyatta spoke on Saturday in Nairobi when he hosted a special IGAD summit whose agenda was to find a lasting solution to return Somali refugees back to their homes, the first summit of its kind to address the refugee problem.

"What is clear to me, as it is to you leaders, and to all the Somali refugees, is that the time for lasting solutions is now," said President Kenyatta, who is also the IGAD rapporteur.

He made a passionate appeal that turned focus on the refugees themselves and why it was the right time for them to go back home and participate in building their nation.

"A refugee camp was never meant to be a permanent home, nor is being a refugee a promise of losing your citizenship and your country," he said.

He detailed how more than 400,000 refugees from Somalia have been cramped into the Dadaab refugee for more than two decades.

The president said that the camp has always operated with a fraction of the budget it requires and the life has been hard on the refugees.

Besides, the suffering for the refugees, the president said the camp has long lost its humanitarian character.

"It is not acceptable to us that a space that is supposed to provide safety and assistance is transformed to facilitate agents of terror and destruction," said President Kenyatta.

He said Kenya reached a decision to close the refugee camp after the situation in Somalia improved and after government came to the conclusion that the threats from the camp were big.

"Dadaab has become a protracted situation, characterised by hopelessness that easily feeds environmental destruction; conflicts between refugees and host communities; insecurity; radicalisation; criminality; and allows terrorist operatives to exploit it for their operational efforts," said the president.

He said majority of the refugees want to go back home and so far 60,000 have voluntarily returned to Somalia.

The president said Kenya has already committed more than 100m shillings [989,000 dollars] to support the voluntary repatriation of refugees.

The president said he recently hosted the new Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmajo" where Kenya pledge to build the capacity of the Somali government institutions, including training teachers, nurses, and administrators.

He said Kenya has also pledged another 100m shillings to construct a technical training institute to give skills to train refugee youth before they go back home.

The president extended an appeal to the international community to build the basic infrastructure that will enable and encourage refugees return while Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] continues to provide security where it is not available.

"This is key, not only as a humanitarian calling and a fulfilment of the international responsibility to refugees, but for the long-term stability and potential of Somalia," he said.

The president also called on humanitarian and development actors to operate from within Somalia as the country continues to gather pace in return to normalcy.

"Now that Somalia is stabilising we must, all, stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters," said the president.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who is also the IGAD chairman said the search for a lasting solution to the Somali refugee problem must be placed at the centre of peace and security efforts in the region.

The Ethiopian prime minister applauded the time of the summit, saying: "This meeting could hardly be more timely to address the plight of the Somali refugees."

Saying Somalia President Mohamed has a clear vision to develop Somalia and address the problem of refugees, Prime Minister Desalegn called for enhanced capacity for the Somali government to win the war against al-Shabab to ensure peace and security.

He encouraged development partners and financial institutions to continue supporting the resilience of refugee hosting countries and facilitate the voluntary repatriation and resettlement of refugees.

President Mohamed outlined the strategies his government has put in place to provide a durable solution to the refugee problem, including equipping the youth with skills and training that will enable participate effectively in building their nation.

He urged humanitarian organisations and development partners to relocate to Somalia, saying his government is committed to providing a conducive environment within which they can operate comfortably.

Other IGAD heads of state who attended the summit included Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Salva Kiir of South Sudan, Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti while Sudan was represented by its Vice-President Hassabo Mohamed Abdulrahman.

Source: KBC Online text website, Nairobi, in English 25 Mar 17


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FinancialWire


June 21, 2017 Wednesday


Heading to Uganda for "solidarity summit," UN chief marks World Refugee Day with calls for action


LENGTH: 657 words


Refugee protection is not a matter of solidarity or generosity, but an obligation under international law, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today said, detailing five strong appeals to the international community for respecting refugees' rights.

"We are still witnessing many remarkable examples of solidarity in today's world. But at the same time, we are seeing more and more borders being closed, we are seeing more and more refugees being rejected and, namely in countries of the developed world," Mr. Guterres said in his first press conference in New York since becoming Secretary-General.
 



Among his calls on Member States, Mr. Guterres urged Governments to manage their borders but to increase their resettlement quotas and protect asylum seekers and people who deserve protection; to seek political solutions to world's conflicts which are spurring the record 65.6 million refugees; and to fund humanitarian aid work.

In line with World Refugee Day, marked annually on 20 June, Mr. Guterres, who was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for a decade prior, announced that he would be leaving later today for Uganda, which this week hosts a UN-backed summit to support the more than 1.3 million refugees within its borders for the next four years.

Some 950,000 refugees from South Sudan have crossed into Uganda since the start of the conflict in the world's newest country in December 2013. The figure is three times higher than the number of refugees who crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe last year, Mr. Guterres said, adding that Uganda not only provides protection but land for the refugees.

I also think it's important to underline that the difficulties faced by refugees are also linked to the fact that the migration debate has become quite irrational in today's world.

In contrast, the UN chief had sharp words for developed countries not doing enough to provide support for refugees or take them in despite heart breaking pleas for food, water and other basics.

Some 80 per cent of the world's refugees are hosted by developing countries with "a dramatic impact" on their economy, society and security, he noted.

"This is particularly worrying, especially when associated to forms of political populism, xenophobia, racism, in which refugees become a target," Mr. Guterres said, "many times being accused of being part of the terror threat when refugees are not terrorists - they are the first victims of terror, they are fleeing terror; that is why they are refugees."

RELATED: Sheer scale of influx into Uganda means Africa's largest refugee crisis now a 'children's crisis,' UNICEF warns

Speaking alongside Ninette Kelley, the Director of the NY Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr. Guterres lashed out at the "irrational debate" surrounding migration, calling it a "necessary element of establishing different forms of equilibrium in the global society and the global economy."

Stressing that Governments need to apply their own migration policies in their countries, he urged world leaders to respect human rights and to create opportunities within their borders so that people migrate "out of choice and not out of necessity."

Addressing the difference between refugees and migrants, Mr. Guterres said that the UN General Assembly will next year hold two key debates with the aim of agreeing on two compacts - one on refugees and one on migration.

"We are talking about two different situations: refugees crossing borders, fleeing conflict or prosecution, [and] economic migrants who aspire legitimately to have a better life and move from one country to another, aiming at a better future for them and their children," the Secretary-General said.

He added that migration is necessary: "If something is necessary, it's better to control it and to do it regularly than to let smugglers and traffickers be in charge of these movements."



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Express Online


April 25, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM GMT 


Thousands of refugees risk homelessness because the government doesn't provide enough help


LENGTH: 629 words


THOUSANDS of refugees in the UK run the risk of homelessness and destitution due to a lack of support from the Government, a cross-party report has found.

GETTY

The APPG has urged the next government to increase levels of support for asylum seekers

People granted refugee status after going through the asylum process receive less support than refugees brought to the UK through Government-led resettlement schemes, the inquiry found.  

The all-party parliamentary group on refugees called for the next government to improve levels of support available for all people who have fled to the UK. 

The report found that more than 50,000 refugees have arrived through the asylum route since 2012, while resettlement programmes accounted for fewer than 10,000 people in the same period. 

Related articles Desperate child migrants selling sex to fund journeys to Britain Liberal CHANGES VIEW on refugees after working on migrant RESCUE boats

The panel of MPs and peers said a "two-tier system has developed for refugees", and criticised a 28-day cut-off period after which support is withdrawn for asylum seekers once their status is confirmed. 

The report said: "Throughout our inquiry we were told by refugees and organisations that support them that the 28-day period - known as the 'move on' period - is too short. 

"Coupled with the the lack of support for refugees to navigate the social security system and private housing market, the brevity of the move on period leaves too many newly-recognised refugees homeless and destitute." 

GETTY

The report called for an extension on the current 28-day 'move on' period

The panel also criticised "drastic" cuts in funding for English language courses and said there was a "regrettable" lack of a strategy to integrate refugees in the UK. 

The report recommends the incoming government appoints a new cross-department minister for refugees to oversee a new strategy. 

The APPG's chairwoman, Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire, said: "A refugee is a refugee however they were granted status. Most will want to return home when conflict is over and in the meantime want to contribute to this country. 

"These are often skilled professionals and, by definition, they all have strength and determination to offer. 

GETTY

The group criticised the government for cutting English Language courses

"But there are administrative flaws in the system which could be easily fixed. Creating a two-tier system for refugees, loading the dice against people who come here to build a new life, is not just the wrong thing to do, but a costly missed opportunity for Britain. 

"The UK can learn from the positive examples of the resettlement programme and the Scottish integration scheme to enable refugees to contribute and feel welcomed. Refugees bring so many talents and skills - they just need the opportunities to unlock their potential." 

Tory MP David Burrowes, the APPG's vice-chairman, said: "For too many refugees, being granted their status is the beginning of a period characterised by homelessness and destitution. Protection must mean more than just a piece of paper." 

Stephen Hale, the chief executive of charity Refugee Action, said: "This report is a timely wake-up call. The new government must seize the opportunity to enable all refugees in Britain, regardless of how they arrive, to successfully rebuild their lives. 

"English language classes are critical to this. All parties should commit to increase funding for this in the next parliament, so that refugees' skills and experiences can enrich our culture and benefit our economy." 

Related articles Government speeding up appeals process for asylum seekers in UK Almost 9,000 migrants saved from Mediterranean over Easter weekend Desperate EU could pay members THOUSANDS for EACH extra asylum seeker


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thetimes.co.uk


April 25, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM GMT 


We must fix the two-tier system that stops refugees contributing


BYLINE: Thangam Debbonaire, David Burrowes


SECTION: NEWS; Version:3


LENGTH: 849 words


In a week's time, parliament will be dissolved. MPs will return to their constituencies for a general election that will have Brexit at its heart.

As part of the election campaign, many questions will be asked, many column inches will be written, and many debates will be had about the post-Brexit immigration system. As chairman and vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on refugees (APPG), we are clear that part of that system, and of showing that the UK remains global-facing, should be a policy based on compassion that allows refugees to rebuild their lives and contribute to our communities.

Over the last nine months, we have been part of a cross-party inquiry looking at how the system supports refugees in order that they may integrate successfully. 

While there has been much political debate about how many refugees the UK should be hosting, there has been little - if any - focus on what happens to refugees once they have been given protection. The inquiry sought to correct this.

Today we publish our report. In it we find that there is a two-tier system of support for refugees. The evidence we received showed that refugees who arrive in the UK through one of the government-led resettlement schemes are provided with accommodation and dedicated support.

But for those who are granted protection after applying for asylum, no such support exists. This leads to many refugees facing homelessness and destitution: the joy of being granted refugee status after what can be a long and traumatic asylum process is quickly replaced by the stress of having to find housing and financial support.

It is a costly, self-destructive distinction that wastes potential, serves no one and harms the prospect of successful integration.

Take Nour. He fled fighting in Syria and was lucky enough to be selected to come to Britain under the resettlement scheme. His English wasn't great but he's bright and determined. Within weeks of arriving, he was taking regular English classes at college (often referred to as ESOL) and now he chats away happily in English. He's studying computer science at university and his ambition is to start the next Microsoft.

Nour was offered protection in the UK and with the right package of support - which also included help finding suitable accommodation from day one in Britain - he's now supporting himself and has a bright future. He's an asset to the UK, partly through his own hard work and partly because we very sensibly gave him the tools to succeed.

Not everyone is so fortunate. Fighting between militias in Iraq meant Sami's home was no longer safe. He arrived in the UK in 2013 and was recognised as a refugee after three years. His parents, who arrived with him, were also granted refugee status but faced long delays in receiving their paperwork from the Home Office.

When you're granted refugee status, you're given 28 days by the Home Office to find somewhere to stay and vacate the accommodation you're provided with while you're waiting for the Home Office's decision. So delays in paperwork can be a big problem for newly recognised refugees. In Sami's case, he ended up homeless. Eventually the right paperwork arrived and he and his parents were able to set up a bank account and rent a flat.

But Sami's problems didn't stop there. He had to wait more than a year before being allowed to learn English, meaning he couldn't enter education and couldn't find a job.

In our report, we argue that all refugees, no matter how they arrive in the UK, should be given the support and opportunities they need to make the most of their talents and their abilities. Not only does this allow refugees to rebuild their lives, but it means that they are able to make full use of their talents and abilities.

The refugees we spoke to during our inquiry told us of their determination and desire to overcome the challenges they face and contribute to the UK. To allow this, in our report we recommend that the future government should introduce a national integration strategy that is applicable to all refugees in the UK. The strategy should be overseen by a dedicated minister for refugees to ensure there is a focus on refugee policy across Whitehall.

The strategy should set out how refugees can be supported to integrate successfully: to gain the English language skills, to receive the medical care, and to be given the opportunities they need to be able to contribute to the UK.

When someone is awarded refugee protection by the UK government, this must mean more than just a piece of paper. The recommendations we make today will help refugees be welcomed to the UK and to successfully integrate. This will benefit not only refugees, but also their local communities and the country as a whole.

As one refugee, Kolbassia, told us: "We have people who are engineers, community leaders, teachers, people with important skills who can contribute to this contribute to this country. When we're talking about refugees that achieve great things for this country - like Mo Farah - not everyone is Mo Farah, but everybody has something to give to this country."


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FinancialWire


March 23, 2017 Thursday


Joint statement on behalf of the Government of Uganda and UNHCR: 'Breaking Point' imminent: Government of Uganda, UNHCR say help for South Sudan refugee inflow urgently needed


LENGTH: 598 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- The Government of Uganda and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi today jointly appealed to the international community for urgent and massive support for the thousands of South Sudan refugees who continue to arrive to Uganda every day, fleeing brutal conflict, compounded by the limited availability of food. 



Uganda currently hosts more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees. Among them are some 572,000 new arrivals who have poured into Uganda in desperate need of safety and help since 8 July 2016. With present rates of arrival, that figure will surpass a million before mid- 2017. This year alone, more than 172,000 South Sudanese refugees have fled to Uganda, with new arrivals in March averaging more than 2,800 daily.

"Uganda has continued to maintain open borders," said Rt. Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister of Uganda. "But this unprecedented mass influx is placing enormous strain on our public services and local infrastructure. We continue to welcome our neighbours in their time of need but we urgently need the international community to assist as the situation is becoming increasingly critical."

"We are at breaking point. Uganda cannot handle Africa's largest refugee crisis alone," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. "The lack of international attention to the suffering of the South Sudanese people is failing some of the most vulnerable people in the world when they most desperately need our help."

Chronic and severe underfunding has reached a point where critical life-saving help risks becoming dangerously compromised. Transit and reception facilities are rapidly becoming overwhelmed. Significant challenges are being faced in providing refugees with adequate food rations, health and educational services, and sufficient clean water; a dire situation further compounded by the onset of heavy rains. Currently, UNHCR urgently needs more than a quarter of a billion US dollars to support South Sudanese refugees in Uganda in 2017.

Uganda's approach to dealing with refugees has long been among the most progressive anywhere on the African continent. Upon receiving refugee status, refugees are provided with small areas of land in settlements integrated within the local host community; a pioneering approach that enhances social cohesion and allows both refugees and host communities to live together peacefully. In Uganda's Mid and South-West, land for these settlements is provided by Government. In northern Uganda, where the vast majority of South Sudanese refugees are being hosted, the land has been donated by the local host community, an outstanding display of generosity towards people fleeing war and conflict.

As a result Uganda was chosen as a role model for pioneering a comprehensive approach to refugee protection that complements humanitarian responses with targeted development action, benefiting both refugees and the communities hosting them. This was adopted as part of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants at the UN General Assembly last year, and is now also being rolled out in other displacement crises - offering hope to millions of refugees worldwide. However, in the face of severe underfunding and the fastest-growing refugee emergency in the world, Uganda's ability to realise a model that allows refugees to thrive now risks being jeopardized - and the future of the new comprehensive refugee response framework thrown into question.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 23, 2017 Thursday 12:45 AM GMT 


Syrians resettled in UK recognised as refugees six years after civil war begins;
Home Office announces people fleeing to UK from Syria will now be grantedrefugee status, giving them previously denied access to university and overseas travel documents


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 691 words


Syrians being resettled in the UK are to be recognised as refugees by the Government, six years after the country's civil war began.

People who have fled Syria and are resettled in Britain

under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme (

VPRS 

)

will for the first time be granted refugee status, enabling them to access certain rights that have previously been barred to them, including higher education and overseas travel documents.

Syrian refugees in the UKhave previously been given a special form of leave to remain called Humanitarian Protection, which prevented them from accessing services that are granted to those with refugee status.

Read more

Government blocks entry to disabled child refugees

Labour peer has taken in Syrian refugee after visiting Calais jungle

No, Syrian refugees cannot return to Aleppo

They faced a three-year wait before being eligible for student finance, which put university out of reach of many, and were also unable to apply for the same travel documents as other refugees, which resulted in Syrians being unable to easily go abroad to visit their family in other countries.

In a written ministerial statement published on Wednesday, the Home Secretary said that while the decision to grant Humanitarian Protection rather than Refugee Leave to Syrians fleeing war was "right at the time", the Government has since recognised that it did not provide access to particular benefits and decided to grant them refugee status.

"At the beginning of the scheme, granting Humanitarian Protection allowed us to quickly assist and resettle the most vulnerable. As we have previously said, we have kept the policy under active review," read the statement.

"We have listened to those who have raised concerns about the consequences, for those we resettle to the UK, of granting Humanitarian Protection rather than Refugee Leave. We have also taken the time to work through the policy and practical implementation issues in detail.

"The decision to grant Humanitarian Protection was the right one at that time. However, while Humanitarian Protection recognises the need an individual has for international protection, it does not carry the same entitlements as refugee status, in particular, access to particular benefits.

"We think it is right to change the policy and now is the right time to make this change."

The statement said that from 1 July 2017, the Government would be granting those admitted under the VPRS and the VCRS refugee status and five years' limited leave, with those who are already resettled under these programmes given the opportunity to make a request to change their status from Humanitarian Protection to refugee status.

Campaign groups who have been carrying out behind the scenes lobbying for resettled Syrians to have the same rights as people granted refugee status have welcomed the move, but said the previous policy was "not enough" from the start.

Respondingto the announcement, Labour peer

Baroness

Lister

, who has been asking questions about why the Government hasn't changed the policy

in the House o

f Lords since the start of the year, told The

Independent:

"I'm delighted by the news. It's taken a long time, and there's been quite a lot of behind the scenes pushing and shoving.

"I can see the argument as to why the Government had originally applied Humanitarian Protection, because things had to move quickly, but they could then have moved faster as evidence was presented to them of the problems that this was creating. This change is

very important for those who will benefit from it."

Dr Lisa Doyle,

d

irector of a

dvocacy at the

Refugee 

Council,a charity that has been campaigning for the change,said

: "The Refugee Council is delighted that refugees from Syria have finally been recognised as such by the Government. This news will open the door to university for thousands of Syrian refugees and enable people to be able to visit their loved ones in other countries.

"It's never been enough for the Government's resettlement programme to enable Syrian refugees to simply survive, and everyone stands to benefit from allowing refugees to thrive, integrate into British life and achieve their full potential."


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ENP Newswire


June 15, 2017 Thursday


-IKEA U.S. supports its local communities by donating 5,000 beds and bedding to refugee families who are starting new lives in America


LENGTH: 1364 words


(Conshohocken, PA) - IKEA U.S. announced today that it has created a community donation program - a campaign called 5,000 Dreams - that will focus on supporting newly arrived refugee families in local IKEA store communities. Through three partner refugee organizations, IKEA will donate 5,000 beds and bedding* to refugee families who are making fresh starts with their families. The three established refugee organizations are the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the International Rescue Committee and the Ethiopian Community Development Council. 



The current international refugee crisis is one of the greatest, most complex humanitarian challenges of our generation. Today, the number of people displaced from their homes by violence and persecution is unprecedented in human history. By the end of 2015, over 65 million people were forcibly displaced, with nearly a third-20 million-living outside of their countries as refugees.

'IKEA is committed to creating a better everyday life and that includes respecting the basic human rights of every individual. We believe every person has equal value and that the global family is strengthened when all of humanity is recognized,' commented Evamay Lawson, IKEA U.S. Community Relations Manager. Lawson added, 'We are pleased we can make a difference in our community's refugee families by donating beds and bedding to help make their new homes comfortable with a good night's sleep.'

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, sleep helps your brain work properly. 'While you're sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. It's forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information. Studies show that a good night's sleep improves learning. It also supports healthy growth and development.'**

'The way IKEA has demonstrated leadership in service and support to refugees is so humbling. 5000 Dreams is more than just a warm, safe place to lay one's head. It is a statement of solidarity and compassion for people who never expected to find themselves displaced. As an international business, they are setting a high bar for both business and government leaders to do all they can to support the uprooted,' stated Lavinia Limon, President/CEO, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

'ECDC's resettlement network very much appreciates IKEA's leadership in helping refugees. ECDC stands with IKEA U.S. in saying that refugees are welcome,' said Dr. Tsehaye Teferra, Director of ECDC. 'After experiencing significant hardship, refugees are now rebuilding their lives and will have one of the most basic of comforts---a bed. ECDC welcomes this partnership with IKEA in welcoming refugees to their new life in America.'

'When refugees arrive in the U.S. they bring little to nothing with them,' said David Miliband, IRC president and CEO, 'so the little things you and I might take for granted every day can make a huge difference in their comfort and in establishing the feeling of home. Now more than ever, the International Rescue Committee - and more importantly, the resilient refugees we serve - look to innovative partnerships like IKEA's 5,000 Dreams to help refugees build a home here in America.'

Some publicly available information from HHS & Pew.

Of the 84,995 refugees admitted to the United States in fiscal year 2016, the largest numbers came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Burma (Myanmar) and Iraq. (Pew)

Since 1975, the U.S. has resettled more than 3 million refugees, with nearly 77 percent being either Indochinese or citizens of the former Soviet Union. Since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, annual admissions figures have ranged from a high of 207,116 in 1980, to a low of 27,100 in 2002. (HHS)

IKEA U.S. has been committed to helping its local communities through many social programs including Early Steps to School Success, Feeding the Future and the Life Improvement programs that benefit community schools, organizations and institutions which need a helping hand through IKEA product donations and IKEA co-worker volunteer support.

On a global level, since 2010, the IKEA Foundation has committed over $ 165 million*** (EUR148 million) to UNHCR to provide shelter, access to education, livelihood opportunities and renewable energy to families and children living in Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Jordan. Working with the social enterprise organizations - Better Shelter and UNHCR - the IKEA Foundation has created a safer and more durable shelter. In 2015, UNHCR bought 10,000 shelters to house displaced families in several countries, including Greece, Iraq, Djibouti, Chad and Serbia. The IKEA Foundation Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign in IKEA stores globally raised $ 34.4 million (EUR30.8 million) in 2014 and 2015, to bring sustainable lighting, energy and education to refugee camps.

The IKEA Foundation recently created another refugee program with a positive societal impact; purchasing rugs from Jordan and partnering with local refugee social enterprises/foundations. This program will enable 200 Syrian refugee woman to produce saleable rugs through IKEA.

For more information, go to www.IKEA-USA.com/5000dreams

NOTE: IKEA U.S. will be working with 3 refugee agencies for the bulk of the donations, however 6 IKEA stores (Orlando, charlotte, West Chester, Portland, Round Rock & Memphis), will be working with local refugee organizations. IKEA Long Island is not participating due to lack of local refugee organization.

*5,000 beds will be donated between 2 years, 2017 and 2018 **https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why ***$ 1.12 US to one EUR (Euro)

Contacts:

IKEA U.S., Mona Astra Liss, 610.834.0180/5852, Mona.Liss@IKEA.com

International Rescue Committee, Sean Piazza, 646.761.0307, Sean.Piazza@rescue.org

Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc., Solace Duncan, 703.685.0510 ext. 246, sduncan@ecdcus.org

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Stacie Blake, 703.310.1166, 727.215.8318, sblake@uscridc.org

IKEA

Since its 1943 founding in Sweden, IKEA has offered home furnishings of good design and function at low prices so the majority of people can afford them. There are currently more than 392 IKEA stores in 48 countries, including 44 in the U.S. IKEA incorporates sustainability into day-to-day business and supports initiatives that benefit children and the environment. For more information see IKEA-USA.com, @IKEAUSANews, @IKEAUSA or IKEAUSA on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has protected the rights and addressed the needs of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide for over 106 years. Our vision is that immigrants, refugees and uprooted people will live dignified lives with their rights respected and protected in communities of opportunity. In the United States our network is comprised of over 100 local agencies. Learn more at www.refugees.org

The International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 28 offices across the U.S. helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future, and strengthen their communities. Learn more at www.rescue.org and follow the IRC on Twitter & Facebook.

Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc.

ECDC is one of nine resettlement agencies working in partnership with the Department of State and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide initial placement and support services to refuges being resettled in the United States. With a special focus on African refugees, ECDC promotes cultural, educational and socioeconomic development programs to assist refugees and immigrants in becoming productive members of their new homeland. For more information about ECDC visit http://www.ecdcus.org/ and follow ECDC on Facebook and Twitter.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


May 10, 2017 Wednesday


Uganda seeks additional funding for refugees


LENGTH: 618 words


Text of report in English by David Mafabi and Emmanuel Ainebyoona entitled "Uganda struggling to feed refugees - government" published by leading privately-owned Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor website on 10 May

With more than 2,000 South Sudanese refugees pouring into Uganda every day, plus another 1.2 million already in the country, the government and aid agencies are struggling to feed the numbers.

Uganda is currently ranked as the second-largest refugee-hosting country in the world, after Turkey, with the World Food Programme estimating Uganda's monthly food requirement for the refugees at about 12m dollars (about 43bn shillings). 

Uganda Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda said although the government has spent about 544bn shillings, its resource envelope is overstretched, saying the country would be seeking more funding during the refugee solidarity summit set for 22 to 23 June in Kampala in order to cater for the refugees and host communities.

Dr Rugunda said despite the resource challenges, Uganda has an "incredibly progressive" approach to asylum and provides refugees with plots of land for settlement and farming close by the Ugandan host communities.

He said in 2016, the government and the UN each spent 544bn shillings in responding to the needs of the refugees and host communities in 12 districts but that the funding is inadequate given the daily average influx of 2,000 refugees.

"These huge numbers are placing a huge strain on our stressed ability to cater for their food, water, health care and education of the refugees and host communities and that is why we are calling for a solidarity summit on refugees to drum for more funding," said Dr Rugunda.

He said government has commenced preparations for the high level solidarity conference that is expected to attract key international organisations in an attempt to drum up support and mobilise resources for the thousands of refugees in Uganda.

"It is a crisis"

The refugee solidarity conference will be jointly hosted by President Museveni and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"It is a crisis and the international community must come together with their resources and expertise to ensure the humanitarian appeals are fully funded and also to explore the reasons why people are fleeing in the first place," Dr Rugunda added.

Mr Hillary Onek, the relief, disaster preparedness and refugees minister, consented there was a refugee crisis and that this was impacting negatively on the host communities and the economy of Uganda.

He said the Government of Uganda and UN refugee agency UNHCR are collaborating with humanitarian organisations to coordinate the refugee response at border entry points and are providing clean water and medical screenings and examining children for malnutrition, and providing high-energy biscuits.

Integration of host communities

Ms Rosa Malango, the UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative, said they were working on a programme to integrate host communities through implementing the Refugee and Host population Empowerment [ReHope] strategy in partnership with the World Bank.

She said the summit is to support and strengthen Uganda's progressive and transformative approach to refugee protection through mobilising new funding to meet the ever increasing cost of humanitarian and long-term needs of the growing number of refugees and supporting host communities.

In a related event, Uganda will host the Third Pan African Forum on Migration (PAFoM) scheduled for 15 to 17 May at Speke Resort Munyonyo, under the theme: "Towards a Common African Position on the Global Compacts on Migration and on Refugees."

Source: Daily Monitor website, Kampala, in English 10 May 17


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ENP Newswire


June 21, 2017 Wednesday


-Unilever: The role business can play in tackling the refugee crisis


LENGTH: 945 words


Unilever: The role business can play in tackling the refugee crisis.

To mark World Refugee Day, we examine the role of the business community in helping to address the biggest refugee crisis since World War II and share specific actions that Unilever is taking.
 



By the end of 2016, an estimated 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations1. These crises deprive individuals of their livelihoods, tear apart families and destroy communities. They put a strain on public resources, health systems and schools in host countries. Additionally, by increasing the risk of forced labour and disrupting business continuity, they have a damaging impact on businesses across the entire value chain and on economic growth.

Businesses have a vital role to play

Businesses can and must play an active role in helping address the refugee crisis, as the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action. Doing so can help create jobs, raise the productivity and wages of local workers, lift capital returns, stimulate international trade and investment, and boost innovation, enterprise and growth. According to the International Monetary Fund, investing EUR1 in welcoming refugees can yield nearly EUR2 in economic benefits within five years2.

Addressing the refugee crisis is as much about sustainable growth as it is about respecting and defending human rights. As CEO Paul Polman says: 'Refugees are often young and bring diversity and skills. Many have qualities related to perseverance, overcoming challenges, hard work and an ability to problem solve, as well as self-motivation. Not surprisingly, countries that embrace refugees usually have a healthier outlook.'

Leveraging our core business

In addressing the refugee crisis, we bring to the table a host of resources such as our understanding of consumers, knowledge of behaviour change, our ability to highlight issues to consumers, and the provision of financing. By leveraging these strengths in partnership with NGOs, governments, and civil society organisations, we are able to uplift the quality of people's lives and strengthen economies.

For example, as part of Vaseline's brand purpose to help heal the skin of 5 million people living in poverty or crisis by 2020, we launched the Vaseline Healing Project in partnership with Direct Relief. The Project sponsored several dermatological missions providing skin health treatment to people on the frontline. Two of these missions were implemented in refugee camps in Jordan, where an estimated 1,500 patients were treated. And through our partnership, Direct Relief has shipped almost 10,000 units of Vaseline products to help Syrian refugees in Greece and Jordan.

In Lebanon, Unilever joined forces with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Carrefour to help vulnerable individuals during the cold winter months. Through Smile with Us, we are raising awareness of the refugee crisis in retail stores and raising funds from the sale of our products, to provide families with essential everyday items. Given the success of this campaign, it has now being extended to Jordan and Iraq.

Using our scale to drive collective action

We are also using our size and scale to drive collective action. In 2017, we joined the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a platform that enables corporate leaders to unite to more effectively leverage the ingenuity of the world's businesses. We have committed to co-create initiatives with local NGOs across Europe and the Middle East, with the aim of providing skills and job training to enhance livelihoods, improve access to effective hygiene and support refugee's social integration. For example, in Germany, we are working with the Red Cross to offer refugees career coaching, while in Spain we are supporting the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid to deliver workshops on healthy cooking, self-esteem and diversity. This is bolstered by employees who contribute their skills and know-how.

Today in Europe, the team at Ben & Jerry's is also showing their support for refugees by kicking-off their 'Together for Refugees' campaign, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC). It aims to mobilise fans to influence a historic piece of legislation - that could lead to expanded refugee resettlement in the EU - by emailing their representatives in Brussels. In both Europe and the US, Ben & Jerry's will use its digital channels to share IRC content, including a variety of ways people can help refugees.

Unilever also contributed to the B-Team's report entitled Refugees & Migrants - An Opportunity for Humanity. This outlines a clear and compelling case for business action, within companies and as part of the larger social movement, and also challenges companies to change the narrative on the refugee crisis - from challenge to opportunity - to help resolve the humanitarian crisis refugees face today.

Moving forward

Unilever will continue to support the needs of refugees by identifying sustainable routes to reduce poverty and improve their health and wellbeing - both of which will contribute to a better world and the success of our business. It is time we move from seeing refugees as a challenge to focusing on our responsibilities and the enormous opportunities they offer.

1 Source: Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2016 (PDF | 7MB), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

2 Source: Refugees Work: A Humanitarian Investment that Yields Economic Dividends (PDF | 4.2MB), Philippe Legrain (for the Tent Foundation), May 2016

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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 6:17 PM GMT 


Awkward moment Theresa May repeatedly REFUSES to condemn Donald Trump's anti-Muslim immigration policies - while the Turkish PM stood yards away is happy to put the boot in 


BYLINE: REBECCA TAYLOR FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 595 words



Theresa May has repeatedly refused to condemn an order by President Donald Trump suspending refugee arrivals, saying America is responsible for its own refugee policy.  

Trump has signed an executive order which stops refugees entering the US from all countries for 120 days, and from Syria indefinitely.

It has already led to the refusal of entry of an Iraqi refugee who worked as a translator for the U.S. Army for 10 years. 

But at a news conference in Ankara, Prime Minister May said: 'The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees.

'And our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria.'

However Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the policy and said putting up walls would not help the refugee crisis.

On the same day May visited Washington for her first White House meeting with Trump to bolster the London-Washington relationship, the new president ordered a suspension of refugee arrivals.

He also imposed tough controls on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

At a joint news conference with Yildirim, May had initially declined to be drawn into directly giving any comment on Trump's order.

Instead she praised Turkey for its hospitality in hosting some three million refugees from Syria and also Iraq.

Yildirim however offered implicit condemnation of Trump's move, saying throwing up walls will not solve the world's refugee problems.

'We cannot solve this refugee problem by putting up walls,' Yildirim said.

Trump's executive order specifically says no visas will be issued for 90 days to migrants or visitors from the seven Muslim-majority countries. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

Yildirim insisted that with tens of millions of refugees worldwide, it was a problem which 'could not be ignored' but had to be solved with greater cooperation between countries.

'We opened our doors, and if they come again, we would take them again,' he said, adding: 'Regional problems cannot be solved by sweeping them under the carpet.'

The Turkish authorities say they are hosting some 2.7 million Syrian refugees who fled the country during the over six-year conflict and another 300,000 Iraqi refugees.

Yildirim added it would not be possible to make 'assessments on hearsay' with regard to Trump's order. 

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.' 


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FinancialWire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


Mastercard and Western Union Explore Digital Model for Refugee Camps;
Research indicates need to integrate access to goods, services and finances in digital format


LENGTH: 945 words


Purchase, NY and Englewood, CO -- With more than 65 million people around the world currently displaced from their homes due to political conflict and natural disasters, there is a growing need to find better ways for refugees to achieve self-sufficiency and become economic engines in their host countries. 



On World Refugee Day, Mastercard and Western Union announced a collaboration to explore the development of a digital model to help refugees more easily access basic human goods, services and finances within refugee settlements. The aim is to enable refugees, their host communities and donors to send and receive funds digitally, allowing for more transparency and long-term empowerment of refugees.

Over the last year, Mastercard and Western Union examined the needs, challenges and opportunities for refugees and their host communities at two settlement camps in northwestern Kenya. The findings have led to the development of Smart Communities: Using Digital Technology to Create Sustainable Refugee Economies, a blueprint that would combine digital access to remittances, banking, education, healthcare and other basic needs in way that is unified and trackable.

"Today's camps were not built to sustain a global refugee crisis of this magnitude," said Tara Nathan, executive vice president of public-private partnerships at Mastercard. "Our plans to reinvent the existing model can help the world's refugee populations achieve self-sufficiency faster, while also contributing to the economic growth of their host communities."

"Refugees across the world want to be empowered to break the chains of dependence and to rebuild their lives in meaningful ways, while also contributing positively to their host communities," said Maureen Sigliano, head of customer relationship management at Western Union. "The new digital infrastructure model would focus on solutions that might include the delivery of mobile money, digital vouchers, prepaid cards, and track other goods and services. The goal is to drive personal empowerment, stimulate growth and promote social cohesion among the world's refugee populations, while driving better governance and transparency."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that the average length of a refugee settlement dependency is approximately 26 years. Many of today's refugee camps founded in the 1960s and 70s, were built as a temporary solution and are unable to sustain today's systemic long-term dependence.

The qualitative research conducted at the Kakuma and Kalobeyei camps in Kenya uncovered the complexity of needs in the camps and the surrounding community. The Mastercard and Western Union blueprint would address these various needs by:

*Laying the groundwork for a set of multipurpose transactional tools that refugees and residents can access, which are optimized to work in low infrastructure areas. *Giving residents greater control over their livelihoods, well-being, and dignity, while providing agencies access to data that informs community planning and development. *Providing a digital platform which would serve as a unique identifier for both local and refugee populations, advancing the critical goals of social cohesion and cooperation across the settlement. *Encouraging adoption of digital payments as an entry point to the formal financial system and can be extended to incorporate a wider set of use cases.

Both Mastercard and Western Union are founding members of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a coalition of more than 70 companies committed to addressing the global refugee crisis.

"The private sector is uniquely positioned to bring greater innovation and ingenuity to this crisis," said Gideon Maltz, executive director of Tent. "Today's announcement offers an exciting new approach to helping refugees, and reflects the contributions that companies can make when they identify problems, collaborate with each other, and work tirelessly to find and fund scalable solutions to fix them. It's our hope that initiatives such as these encourage even more companies and entrepreneurs to step up."

About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world's fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities - such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances - easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. As of March 31, 2017, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network of over 550,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories and over 150,000 ATMs and kiosks, and included the capability to send money to billions of accounts. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

Mastercard Communications Contact

Marisa.Grimes@mastercard.com; 914-325-8367

Western Union Communications Contact

Rachel Rogala, Rachel.rogala@wu.com; 720-332-2686



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FinancialWire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


A children's refugee crisis


LENGTH: 593 words


KAMPALA, Uganda -- As more than 1,000 children continue to flee South Sudan, on average every day in search of safety, the region's refugee crisis has become a children's crisis, UNICEF said today, on World Refugee Day. 



Since violence erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, more than 1.8 million people have crossed into neighboring countries. In just one year the population of refugees in Uganda has more than doubled from 500,000 to more than 1.25 million, making Uganda now host to the fastest growing refugee emergency in the world.

"More than one million children have been forced from their homes in South Sudan, often amid horrific violence," said UNICEF's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Leila Pakkala. "Day after day, week after week, they are being received by countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. Despite great efforts on many fronts, the systems in these countries are tremendously stretched."

Ahead of Uganda's International Solidarity Summit on Refugees (June 22-23), UNICEF noted that 86% of all refugees in Uganda are women and children. Indeed, Uganda is now Africa's leading refugee-hosting country, having jumped from the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in mid-2016 to the third largest today, after Turkey and Pakistan.

The Government of Uganda, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and other humanitarian partners on the ground are working tirelessly to respond to the more than 740,000 refugees who have arrived in Uganda since July 2016. Such dramatic numbers are placing excessive pressure on State and host community resources, especially social services that are critical to children's well-being.

"The Ugandan Government has a progressive and generous open door policy to refugees," said UNICEF's Ms Pakkala. "This approach provides better prospects for refugee children in Uganda than in many contexts globally. The very real hope is that such a model is supported widely across countries."

The Government of Uganda and the United Nations are appealing for $ 8 billion in funding for both emergency response and resilience interventions to Uganda's refugee and refugee-hosting population over the next four years. Within this appeal, UNICEF in Uganda requires nearly $ 50 million in 2017 as well as $ 30 million in each year from 2018-2020 to provide critical health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, early childhood development, adolescent development, and child protection interventions, to both refugee and host community children.

For Ethiopia and Kenya, as part of their Humanitarian Action for Children's Appeal for Ethiopia and Kenya, UNICEF requires $ 13.6 million to respond to the new influx of South Sudanese refugees in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia, and $ 7.3 million for the refugee response in Kenya.

On World Refugee Day, UNICEF is also reiterating its call to governments to adopt its six-point agenda for action to protect refugee and migrant children and ensure their well-being, which was launched ahead of the G7 Summit in Italy in late May.

While refugee children in Uganda enjoy the full existing legal, physical and social protection system as the host population and use the same social services as them, UNICEF said more must be done to fully operationalize this agenda for action across the region, especially keeping families together, helping all uprooted children stay in school and stay healthy, and acting on the causes that force children to flee in the first place.

Distributed by APO on behalf of UNICEF Uganda.



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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 10, 2017 Friday 12:50 AM GMT 


Refugees applying to live in UK face being sent home after five years under new Home Office rules;
Changes criticised for causing'bureaucratic and unnecessary nightmare' for people wanting to remain in Britain


BYLINE: Ben Kentish


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:12


LENGTH: 587 words


Refugees applying to stay in the UK could be sent home after five years under new Home Office guidelines that came into force on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of people who have been granted refugee status will have to undergo an official review five years after they enter Britain to determine whether they can safely be sent back to their home countries.

Those that are deemed to be at low risk of persecution in their country of origin are likely to be banned from working and subsequently deported. 

Read more

Government votes down plan to rescue more child refugees

The change was promised by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary but has only now been implemented.

In her speech to the 2015 Conservative party conference, Ms May said: "We'll introduce strengthened 'safe return reviews' - so when a refugee's temporary stay of protection in the UK comes to an end, or if there is a clear improvement in the conditions of their own country, we will review their need for protection.

"If their reason for asylum no longer stands and it is now safe for them to return, we will seek to return them to their home country rather than offer settlement here in Britain."

The new checks will apply to all refugees who apply to remain in the country after their initial five-year probationary period expires.

Previously, refugees were given an automatic right to stay in the UK once they reached the end of the initial period for which they had been granted residency rights. The only exceptions were if an individual had committed a criminal offence or if ministers decided an entire country was safe for refugees to return to.

The change is expected to mean the 59,000 refugees granted entry to Britain in the last five years will all now face a "safe country review" if they want to remain in the UK.

The Home Office said the changes were required to "maintain a fair immigration system".

"The policy is designed to meet our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and EU law by granting refugee status and an appropriate period of leave to those who need our protection", it said on its website.

"To maintain a fair immigration system that requires all migrants, including those granted refugee status, to earn the right to settlement, and all the benefits that come with it, by completing an appropriate period of limited leave."

Read more

UN attacks Europe's 'chilling indifference' to refugees

Government policy on child refugees ignores evidence, charities warn

Labour peer has taken in Syrian refugee after visiting Calais jungle

Syrian refugee falsely labelled terrorist on Facebook loses case

Reforms are needed "to ensure that safe return reviews are carried out so that protection is provided for as long as it is needed, but make clear that those who no longer need protection will need to apply to stay on another basis or leave the UK", it added.

Charities condemned the changes, saying they were unnecessary and would create needless stress for refugees.

"This policy will result in refugees who have demonstrated their need for protection being prevented from being able to properly rebuild their lives and being left with the constant fear of return hanging over their heads", Dr Lisa Doyle, of the Refugee Council,

told

The Guardian

.

"Actively reviewing individual cases after five years promises to be a costly, bureaucratic and unnecessary nightmare that completely misunderstands the fact that many refugees desperately want to return home of their own accord anyway when it's safe to do so."


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FinancialWire


March 23, 2017 Thursday


Kenya: Protect Somalis Facing Conflict, Abuses, Drought


LENGTH: 1249 words


NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya should protect and assist Somali refugees and asylum seekers facing ongoing conflict and a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. In line with a recent High Court decision, the authorities should abandon their decision to close the Dadaab refugee camp and publicly declare that the more than 249,000 Somali refugees living there can remain in Kenya until conditions exist for them to return in safety and with dignity. 



On March 24-25, 2017, Kenya will host an Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit that will bring together Eastern African heads of state to discuss the situation of Somali refugees in the region, as the threat of pervasive drought and food insecurity in Somalia looms. Kenya's role as host is marred by its continued insistence on closing Dadaab refugee camp, host to over 249,000 Somali refugees, by May.

"Kenya should demonstrate leadership by declaring that Dadaab will remain open and that it will resume prima facie recognition of Somali refugees," said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. "Kenya and neighboring Eastern African countries, supported by international partners, should urgently assist and protect refugees facing continuing conflict and drought in Somalia."

In May 2016, the Kenyan government removed prima facie refugee status - meaning recognizing refugee status based simply on nationality - for Somalis and disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs, charged with processing asylum claims. It also announced plans to speed up the repatriation of Somali refugees, and to close Dadaab camp in north-eastern Kenya by November, subsequently extended to May.

On February 9, Kenya's High Court ruled that the government's May 2016 directives were unconstitutional and discriminated against Somalis. The High Court also ordered the Kenyan government to restore the administration of refugee affairs to the status quo prior to the government's decision. The Kenyan government has not taken steps to carry out the ruling. On March 8, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya repeated that Kenya's decision to close Dadaab camp was final.

In 2016, Kenyan authorities, with officials from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, stepped up a 2013 "voluntary" repatriation program. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International research in Dadaab and interviews with more than 100 Somali refugees found that Kenya had not given them a real choice between continuing to receive asylum in Kenya and returning to Somalia, and that the program violated the international principle of non-refoulement - forced return of people to places where they would face persecution, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, or other threats to their lives or freedom - which is binding on Kenya as party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 African Union Refugee Convention.

Registration of refugees in Dadaab has been sporadic since 2011 and has been entirely suspended, with some exceptions, since August 2015. In 2016, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International spoke to many unregistered people in Dadaab, including new arrivals and people who had already returned under the repatriation program but then fled back to Dadaab. The people interviewed said they feel particularly vulnerable both due to their lack of legal status and because of their lack of access to food rations. Most recently, in mid-March, over 100 Somali refugees and asylum seekers were arrested in a security operation in Dadaab. According to a refugee agency, those with refugee documentation were released, while 28 Somali asylum seekers were charged with unlawful presence.

Under Kenya's Refugee Act, the Commissioner of Refugee Affairs must recognize people as refugees if they meet the definition of the 1969 African Union Refugee Convention. The African Union definition includes people fleeing events seriously disturbing public order.

The lack of sufficient international support for Kenya, including through consistently underfunded UN humanitarian appeals and very limited refugee resettlement, has contributed to the appalling situation in Dadaab, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. The World Food Program has repeatedly cut food rations to people in Dadaab due to funding shortfalls. The most recent cut, in December, reduced rations by 50 percent. Refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in 2016 who had signed up to return to Somalia often cited the ration cuts as a factor influencing their decision to return, and to accept a one-time UNHCR repatriation package - despite fears for their security and survival in Somalia.

UNHCR's own assessments indicate that conditions in south-central Somalia are not conducive to mass refugee returns due to ongoing conflict, insecurity, and humanitarian conditions. In May 2016 UNHCR's guidelines on returns to Somalia found that: "Civilians continue to be severely affected by the conflict, with reports of civilians being killed and injured in conflict-related violence, widespread sexual and gender-based violence against women and children, forced recruitment of children, and large-scale displacement."

The humanitarian situation remains dire. According to the UN, half of Somalia's population - 6.2 million out of 12.3 million people - are currently in need of humanitarian assistance. Many of the communities affected by the 2011 famine are once again at risk.

More than 260,000 people have been displaced by the drought within Somalia since November, adding to the country's 1.1 million internally displaced people, who live in deplorable and unsafe informal displacement camps in the country's main towns. Most of those recently displaced in south-central Somalia have fled into Baidoa and Mogadishu, among the areas to which UNHCR is facilitating returns from Dadaab. The UN has also recorded an increase in displacement into neighboring Ethiopia, which currently hosts 245,500 registered Somali refugees. So far, contrary to the period leading up to the 2011 famine, very little movement into Kenya has been recorded.

According to UN data on returns, over half of those returning from Dadaab to Somalia said they would not return to their areas of origin. Returning refugees, especially those unable to return to their home areas or those who have been gone for many years, risk ending up internally displaced in Somalia, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others, have continued to document serious abuses against internally displaced communities in Somalia at the hands of government and non-state actors, including sexual violence and violent forced evictions from their temporary shelters. According to a UN monitoring network, forced evictions increased in late 2016, with more than 60,000 new evictions since November alone.

"Given the ongoing drought and security crisis in Somalia, it's high time Kenya's international partners help to ensure that Somalis can find safety and humanitarian assistance in neighboring countries," said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International. "International community and donor countries should guarantee adequate technical and financial support to the Kenyan government and civil society to come up with sustainable, long term durable solutions for refugee integration into the country.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).



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ENP Newswire


June 21, 2017 Wednesday


-APO-World Refugee Day: Constrained resources for nearly a million refugees in Uganda


LENGTH: 816 words


The country currently hosts 950,562 refugees and receives about 2,000 new arrivals every day, the vast majority of them fleeing violence in South Sudan.

The international response in Uganda is failing refugees and must prioritise life-saving supplies such as food and water to prevent a medical emergency, the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors without Borders (MSF) said today ahead of a major refugee summit.
 



Governments and international organisations are meeting in Kampala on 22 and 23 June to raise funds for Uganda's refugee response. The country currently hosts 950,562 refugees and receives about 2,000 new arrivals every day, the vast majority of them fleeing violence in South Sudan. Uganda is a pilot country for the UNHCR-led Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), which aims to improve the situation of refugees and host communities through increasing self-reliance and enhancing cooperation between the UNHCR, governments, NGOs, and other actors.

Governments and international organisations are meeting in Kampala on 22 and 23 June to raise funds for Uganda's refugee response

Inadequate resources, coupled with poor water and sanitation conditions and a shortage of food rations, could quickly turn the situation into a medical emergency. In Palorinya, 80 percent of the population is 100 percent dependent on water treated by MSF, which is unsustainable. 'Currently the most basic needs of refugees are not being met,' says Tara Newell, MSF's operations manager for Uganda. Even though we are pumping and treating record amounts of water in Palorinya, it's always only just barely enough for the population.' The majority of refugees who live in settlements without water plants and who rely on a handful of boreholes and water trucks get seven litres per person per day. Access to water in the settlements is dependent on water trucking, a hugely expensive system often derailed by poor road conditions. 'Without a longer term and more cost-effective solution, people's ability to cope, as well as their health, will deteriorate,' says Newell.

Following 50 percent cuts to the monthly food rations distributed by the World Food Programme, the number of people critically short of food in the settlements is also a major concern. MSF is seeing refugees registering in multiple settlements because they are desperate for food rations and water, and there are reports of inconsistent or incomplete core relief items distributions in the settlements. Refugees have cited food insecurity as a major concern and have even prompted some to return to South Sudan. 'I'd rather get shot in South Sudan than starve in Uganda,' one refugee told MSF staff. Teams have also heard stories of refugees who returned to South Sudan because of a lack of food in Uganda, only to be killed. 'Refugees are being put in an unimaginable position - to go without food and water, or risk their lives in a conflict just so they can eat,' says Dr. Leon Salumu, MSF program manager.

Keeping pace with the growing refugee population is proving impossible and the Ugandan Government is increasingly stretched. Some refugees have been moved to sites far away from water sources or cultivatable land, such as the Ofua zone in the western part of Rhino settlement. Better site planning, which maximizes access to services such as water, sanitation and healthcare, is needed to ensure the basic needs of refugees are met.

Health interventions have also been complicated by the time-consuming nature of regular importation procedures for medical supplies. For example, for two months this year, MSF was unable to offer safe deliveries, or treat eye and skin diseases, two common morbidities in the settlements, because of the lengthy bureaucratic requirements for importing medical supplies. MSF requests the Government of Uganda expedite pending importation requests and to fast-track medical importations for emergency health kits and medical supplies to facilitate a scale-up of the emergency medical response.

Uganda is now the largest host of refugees in Africa, taking in more than triple the amount of people who arrived in Europe by sea in 2016. Many countries have shamefully introduced restrictive migration policies and sought to limit the arrival of refugees at their borders, promising instead to support refugees closer to their country of origin. Yet they have not delivered on this promise - the Uganda refugee response is only 17 percent funded. 'The international community has failed to help resolve the conflict in South Sudan and is now failing to adequately help South Sudanese refugees in the region,' says Salumu. 'The international community needs to step up to its obligations and rethink the ways services are delivered to refugees spread out across such vast geographical distances.'

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The Guardian(London)


February 13, 2017 Monday 11:35 AM GMT 


UN accused of failing Afghan refugees 'forced' to return home from Pakistan;
UNHCR cites behind-scenes advocacy after rights group claims it has left Afghan refugees at risk of persecution by failing to condemn 'campaign of abuse'


BYLINE: Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul


SECTION: GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT


LENGTH: 1010 words


The UN refugee agency has fallen short of its mandate to protect refugees by failing to denounce a "campaign of abuse" by Pakistan that has ushered thousands of Afghans out of the country, leaving them at risk of persecution at home, according to Human Rights Watch.

Last year the Pakistani government ordered all Afghan migrants and refugees to leave the country, mounting a campaign of intimidation, according to HRW, that has so far led to the eviction of nearly 600,000 people since July.  

Related: Exiled from Pakistan, destitute Afghans return to a country at war

Afghans in Pakistan constitute one of the world's largest refugee communities, housing until recently an estimated 1.5 million registered and 1 million unregistered Afghan refugees. Many are second- or third-generation refugees with little connection to Afghanistan.

After the Pakistani government last year ordered all Afghan migrants and refugees to leave, authorities began raiding their homes and shops. On a recent trip to the border, the Guardian heard stories of police harassment and arbitrary arrests and of landlords cancelling leases. There were also reports of communities that had housed refugees for decades suddenly turning against Afghan families.

By not denouncing the mass eviction as refoulement - the return of refugees to a country where they have reason to fear persecution - HRW said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had failed in its duty to protect refugees.

By failing to accurately inform of the conditions awaiting returnees in Afghanistan, and handing out $400 (£320) cash grants to each returning registered refugee between June and December last year, the agency "effectively promoted the forced return", HRW added.

"The UN refugee agency should end the fiction that the mass forced return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is, in fact, mass voluntary return," said the report.

Patricia Gossman, senior researcher HRW, added: "UNHCR's essential mandate is protection."

A spokeswoman for the refugee agency, Ariane Rummery, said: "UNHCR has been raising concerns about the pressures on Afghans." She emphasised the complexity of the factors driving the situation, which she said included Pakistani security operations, economic hardship and a campaign by the Afghan government to encourage Afghans in Pakistan to return home.

She said that UNHCR "advocates for an improvement in the protection environment for Afghans in Pakistan", and pointed out that Pakistan recently extended the deadline for Afghans in that country to leave until the end of 2017.

"It is not UNHCR's opinion that the situation can be characterised as refoulement, but there is no question Afghan refugees are having to make tough decisions on where they can find more reliable and predictable protection at this time," Rummery said.

"We call on the international community and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure that refugee repatriation is voluntary, gradual and aligned with development programmes as well as efforts to bolster peace and security."

Laurence Hart, chief of mission in Afghanistan for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said it was unfair to point fingers at the UNHCR in failing to stand up to Pakistan's conduct.

"They have certainly made, along with other actors, a lot of advocacy but perhaps it wasn't public," he said. "International agencies need to preserve their operational space in Pakistan and being too public in their statements could jeopardise this space."

But other organisations agreed with HRW's criticism.

"We have a situation now in which UNHCR is clearly facilitating a return of refugees that appears involuntary, and this is against the core principle of refugee law," said William Carter, head of programme with the Norwegian Refugee Council.

He added that the organisation had tried without success to convince the UNHCR to change approach. "Unfortunately UNHCR remained intransigent," Carter said.

After a hiatus over winter, the UNHCR plans to resume cash support to returnees in March, but critics say a different solution is needed.

Approximately 40% of the 600,000 returnees are not documented refugees. They do not receive UNCHR cash grants, which in the case of large families can add up to several thousand dollars.

"I think the main issue is that response to returnees, being undocumented or registered refugees, remains unbalanced notwithstanding the similar vulnerable situation they find themselves in," said Hart. "It would be important to move from a status-based approach to a need-based one, so that inequities are avoided," he said.

The NRC insisted that cash grants be abolished completely for now.

"Clearly, the UNHCR should not resume its repatriation programme until we are sure that refugees are returning voluntarily," Carter said. "The Afghan government needs to give itself enough time to put in place realistic plans and finances to provide durable solutions for returnees."

Most returning Afghans settle in the poor eastern province of Nangarhar or in the capital, Kabul.

"Obviously, when these people come to the country they become very vulnerable," said Timor Sharan, Afghanistan analyst with the International Crisis Group. "They settle around urban centres, which may be relatively safe, but what essentially happens is it cuts them off from communities they belong to."

Returnees sometimes resort to extreme methods to cope.

During her six years in Punjab in Pakistan, Daryan Begam had a stable life. She helped support her four children, including a disabled daughter, by sewing footballs. But a year ago, shortly after her husband died, authorities began pressuring her until she left. To pay rent in her new house in Nangarhar, the widow said she had to marry off her daughter, who is 15, to a local police chief.

"My daughters don't have a father so we have no provider at home. It is not easy for a mother to marry her daughter off at a young age, but I had no choice," Begam said.

Additional reporting by Nargis Ehsan


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thetimes.co.uk


April 23, 2017 Sunday 12:01 AM GMT 


Books: Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier;
Two experts propose a fresh approach to one of the defining crises of our time


BYLINE: Review by Justin Marozzi


SECTION: CULTURE; Version:1


LENGTH: 896 words


The United Nations' International Organisation for Migration reported this month that West African migrants were being sold publicly in slave markets in Libya. The daily tragedies from this country alone - Isis fanatics converting female refugees to Islam and selling them as sex slaves, mass drownings in the Mediterranean, the Libyan coastguard in deadly clashes with migrant smugglers - are consistently heartbreaking.

The situation is little better in the eastern Mediterranean, where the implosion of Syria has created a refugee crisis of catastrophic proportions. Approximately 11m Syrians, almost half that country's population, have been forced to flee their homes. 

Worldwide, the total figure for displaced people is more than 65m, of whom 21m are defined as refugees. Half of these are languishing in refugee camps for an average of 10 years, waiting for peace in their homeland. All come from what are euphemistically designated "fragile" countries. Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia account for more than half of the world's refugees.

The central argument of Refuge is that the world's refugee system, designed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War to cope with millions of refugees moving across Europe, is no longer fit for purpose. Established in the late 1940s, the underfunded UN High Commissioner for Refugees - backed by the 1951 Geneva convention on refugees that focused on individual persecution, rather than the conflict, disorder and state collapse that are today's drivers of refugees - simply cannot cope.

pullquoteRadical policy changes can bring swift benefits

So much for the statistics and diagnosis. What about a route out of this inferno of human suffering? Alexander Betts, a refugee expert at Oxford University, and Paul Collier, an economist, development expert and sometime advisor to British prime ministers, place their emphasis on "pragmatic operational changes on the ground rather than the negotiation of lofty, abstract principles". In other words, they do rather more than wring their hands and plead with the international community to stop wars, fight corruption and lift the world's poor out of poverty.

At the heart of their approach is a call to move away from "the dominant camp-based 'care and maintenance' model" in order to allow refugees to work in their place of refuge. What better proof of the failings of this model, and the need for urgent rethinking, than the Dadaab camps of northern Kenya, where around 300,000 Somalis are denied both the right to work and freedom of movement in a de facto incarceration that lasts many years? Far better, surely, as the authors argue, to allow refugees to work and contribute to the economy of their host nation.

Evidence is emerging that this radical policy change can bring swift, tangible benefits. Uganda, which hosts more than 500,000 refugees and is almost alone in permitting them to work, is one of the more imaginative and progressive examples. In the capital, Kampala, a recent study commissioned by Betts's refugee study centre found that 21% of refugees ran job-creating businesses, with 40% of their employees coming from the host country. This is a world away, in practice and principle, from the typical, autonomy-stripping refugee camps of Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

There are some encouraging signs that policy makers are listening to this argument. After an invitation to visit Jordan's sprawling Zaatari camp, with its bustling main market street known as the Shams-Elysées, Betts and Collier went to see a £100m development zone lying almost empty just 15 minutes away. That led to a pilot project, supported by the king of Jordan, David Cameron and the World Bank, to create 200,000 jobs for Syrian refugees. Yes, there are risks of exploitation by foreign multinationals, yes there are problems with special economic zones, but it takes a peculiarly dim critic to reject this new approach in favour of the systematic immiseration of a refugee system that prohibits employment.

Supporting refugees in the neighbouring countries in which they have sought refuge is sensible policy, not the moral dodge its opponents lazily suggest. Of the millions of Syrian refugees, 78% are shared between Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. This is where the problem, and the solutions to it, must ultimately lie, funded much more generously by the world's richest nations. The refugees' present options of "encampment, urban destitution, perilous journey" are shamefully inadequate.

Betts and Collier remind us, in an analysis that is at once compassionate and dispassionate, and full of bold and innovative thinking, that it is just as possible to be soft-hearted and wrong as hard-headed and right. They give short shrift, for instance, to Angela Merkel's open-door policy on Syrian refugees, which has had desperately negative consequences. At a stroke, the German chancellor's "headless heart" policy tore up the EU's Dublin Agreement, under which refugees were bound to apply for asylum in the first EU country they reached, emboldened Bashar al-Assad, precipitated a mass exodus of Syria's most educated population, and gave a shot in the arm both to people smugglers and Europe's far right, not to mention those campaigning for Brexit.

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Allen Lane £20 pp288Read the first chapter on the Sunday Times website


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FinancialWire


May 8, 2017 Monday


UN migration agency transports hundreds of South Sudanese refugees from border into Ethiopia


LENGTH: 503 words


The United Nations migration agency has begun transferring South Sudanese refugees from Ethiopia's Pagak border entry point in Gambella to the Gore-Shembola refugee camp in Benishangul Gumuz Regional States - approximately 835 kilometres away. 



"IOM [International Organization for Migration] has set up two way stations, one at Metu [275 km from the Pagak entry point] and the other at Gimbi [310 km from Metu]," said Anezier Ebrahim, IOM Officer in charge of the operation, explaining the route taken to reach Gore-Shembola refugee camp in a press release announcing the effort, which began on 1 May.

"The way stations have been constructed with the financial assistance of the United Kingdom Department for International Development and provide overnight accommodation, shelter and meals for refugees in transit from the border entry point to the camp," he continued.

With recent fighting and severe food insecurity further worsening the already dismal humanitarian situation in South Sudan, an additional 30,000 refugees are expected to enter Gambella over the coming months, according to IOM. Refugee camps in Gambella, one of Ethiopia's least developed regions, are currently at maximum capacity with the total number of South Sudanese refugees surpassing that of the local population.

In collaboration with the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs and the Office of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), IOM carried out an assessment of the potential route from Pagak border entry point to Gore-Shembola refugee camp in Benishangul, to ensure the safe and dignified migration of the refugees.

Prior to relocation, IOM provided pre-departure medical screenings to ensure that refugees are fit for travel, referring those who present medical concerns to local health facilities. IOM is also working in coordination with Plan International to provide psychosocial support and protection services for unaccompanied minors.

Nyakim and her four children are among the 365 refugees who were transferred to Gore-Shembola refugee camp in Benishangul this week. The struggles of the journey to reach Ethiopia are clearly visible - all of her children suffer from skin rashes and a cough.

"The journey from Jonglei to Pagak has been really difficult. We have walked for six days straight and my children and I have eaten only wild fruit from the forest," Nyakim said.

Renewed fighting led her to make the perilous journey for the safety of her children, leaving her husband behind.

IOM worked in collaboration with Action for the Needy in Ethiopia (ANE) for way station site preparations and the provision of latrines, showers and water.

"Continued transportation assistance is urgently required to ensure newly arrived refugees' access to basic services in the camps." added Mr. Ebrahim, with the reminder that IOM remains committed to assist refugees with transportation from Pagak border entry point to Gore-Shembola refugee camp in the coming months.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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ENP Newswire


May 16, 2017 Tuesday


-APO-Over US$ 1.4 Billion Needed for South Sudan Refugees in 2017


LENGTH: 625 words


South Sudan has now become the world's fastest growing refugee crisis with more than 1.8 million refugees - including one million children.

The UN Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme today urged donors to step up support for desperate refugees fleeing South Sudan. Humanitarian agencies are seeking USD 1.4 Billion to provide life-saving aid to South Sudanese refugees in the six neighbouring countries until the end of 2017 - according to an updated response plan presented in Geneva on Monday.
 



The South Sudanese refugee response plan so far remains only 14 per cent funded.

'Bitter conflict and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in South Sudan are driving people from their homes in record numbers,' said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

The situation in South Sudan continues to worsen - with a combination of conflict, drought and famine leading to further displacement and a rapid exodus of people fleeing one of the world's most severe crises.

'The suffering of the South Sudanese people is just unimaginable' said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. 'They are close to the abyss. Violence is at the root of this crisis. Aid workers often cannot reach the most vulnerable hungry people. Many are dying from hunger and disease, many more have fled their homeland for safety abroad.'

South Sudan has now become the world's fastest growing refugee crisis with more than 1.8 million refugees - including one million children, having sought safety in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, DRC and CAR.

The current rate of people fleeing South Sudan exceeds the humanitarian community's already pessimistic estimates. For example, the number of people fleeing to Sudan in March surpassed the expected figure for the entire year. Uganda is also seeing higher than expected arrivals and at this rate is likely to soon host over one million South Sudanese refugees.

The South Sudanese refugee response plan so far remains only 14 per cent funded

'Our funding situation forced us to cut food rations for many refugees in Uganda,' Beasley said. 'I find that unacceptable, and I hope you do too. These are families like yours and mine, our brothers and sisters, and the world must help them now-not later. Please help us do the job these people need us to do.'

UNHCR welcomed the outstanding generosity refugees have received in South Sudan's neighbouring countries, but is alarmed by a situation which is now critical.

'Countries like Uganda have done all one could expect, but won't be able to sustain support for refugees unless the rest of the world steps up,' warned UNHCR's Grandi while presenting the revised needs to donors in Geneva.

With acute underfunding, humanitarian agencies are struggling to provide food, water, nutrition support, shelter and health services to refugees.

Communities hosting refugees are among the world's poorest and are under immense pressure.

'Helping refugees is not just about providing emergency aid,' said UNHCR's Grandi. 'It also means supporting governments and communities in neighbouring countries to shore up services and economies in the areas receiving them.'

UNHCR coordinates the overall response with Governments, humanitarian agencies as well as with refugees and host communities. Currently Uganda hosts some 898,000 refugees, with 375,000 in Sudan, 375,000 in Ethiopia, 97,000 in Kenya, 76,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 2,200 in Central African Republic (CAR).

WFP provides food and cash assistance to more than 1.8 million refugees in the neighbouring countries.

The updated response plan does not cover humanitarian needs of around two million people displaced internally in South Sudan.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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The Independent - Daily Edition


April 27, 2017 Thursday  
First Edition


Charities demand Home Office scraps 'devastating' new refugee policy


BYLINE: MAY BULMAN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 12


LENGTH: 1088 words


A new refugee policy the Government quietly introduced last month will have a "devastating" impact on the mental health of those who have sought to make a new life in the UK, charities have warned. An open letter signed by 50 organisations working with refugees calls on the Home Office to reverse the new policy, which they say aims to prevent refugees from integrating and introduces an "additional layer of bureaucracy, uncertainty, and evaluation at the hands of a dispassionate state".

New guidance issued by the Home Office means that people who are granted refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK will now have to undergo a "safe return review" after five years, meaning the Home Office will assess whether they can return people to the countries they have fled from before they apply for permanent settlement. 

The charities that signed the letter, which include Right to Remain and Migrant Rights Network, say the policy "undermines" the promise of stability and security that should come with being granted refugee status in Britain, and that it "violates the state's obligation to provide sanctuary and refuge to those it has granted the right to remain". They proceed to urge that the policy be "immediately reversed" due to the "societal and financial costs" it brings with it, warning that it is part of a "worrying trend" to weaken the concept of a refugee and to make the UK a "hostile environment" for migrants.

The letter states: "The awarding of refugee status should bring with it the promise of stability and security. It is a chance to build a new home, to study or work, to become a part of the community. The Home Office's decision to review every application at the end of the five years to see if their home country is 'safe' undermines this promise, bringing with it the threat of deportation. The announcement that those who have already been granted full rights as refugees will later have that decision reviewed violates the state's obligation to provide sanctuary and refuge to those it has granted the right to remain. This move is part of a worrying trend to weaken the concept of a refugee and to make the UK a 'hostile environment' for migrants. We call on the Home Office to reverse this decision. When a refugee's claim has been recognised, they should be given permanent residency."

When informed of the new policy, Makhosi Sigabade, a refugee living in the UK, said: "After being given a false sense of hope and stability I am being made to relive the nightmares of my past. I am now confronted with a possibility of going back to face the same persecution from which I fled. The system is meant to protect people seeking sanctuary but threatens to expose them to the dangers they flee."

Luke Butterly, of the Participation and Practice of Rights, a small human rights charity in Belfast, said the changes were likely to bring "great instability" to the lives of refugees, affecting their mental health as well as employment prospects. "Before, once you made the insanely difficult journey to the UK and went through the asylum process, you were here for life, but now Amber Rudd has put a time limit on this. They've said 'You can stay here for five years, but after that, who knows?'" Mr Butterly told The Independent. "The communities here in the asylum process in Northern Ireland are very concerned about this because of the great instability in people's lives it will bring. It will have a detrimental effect on mental health, as well as job prospects, with potential employers not knowing if they'll be here in two years' time."

Mr Butterly added that as well as being angry about the principle of introducing a "safe return review" after five years, there were concerns over the way it would be implemented in practice. "At the moment, the Home Office often gets cases wrong - about a third of asylum claims are overturned in the appeals process. The guidance on the safety of countries is often widely inaccurate. We don't know how this policy will be applied in practice, but given the practices of the Home Office we are extremely anxious about it," he said.

Forward Maisokwadzo, of City of Sanctuary, which supports people seeking asylum in the UK, meanwhile, said: "These are worrying times for refugees and within us the City of Sanctuary movement. This is so, because the proposed 'inhuman' policy is a direct threat to the basic human rights. City of Sanctuary hold the vision that [the UK and Ireland] will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution. We appeal to Home Secretary Amber Rudd to do the honourable thing and listen carefully to all evidence put forward against this 'restrictive' policy and exercise compassion by ensuring refugee rights are protected."

The UNHCR has condemned the new policy, saying it could have a "serious impact on the wellbeing of refugees, their ability to settle and be in long-term employment", and that it will create a "source of anxiety" for refugees by "putting their lives on hold", as well as putting additional strain on the Government's resources. Laura Padoan, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, said: "We are concerned that the UK's approach to active reviews of refugee status could have a serious impact on the wellbeing of refugees, their ability to settle and be in long-term employment. We know that it is a source of anxiety for many refugees, creating a sense that their lives are on hold. We feel that it's not needed, because under British and international law, there are already mechanisms to review and cease refugee status where appropriate. It will also clearly put an additional strain on the Government's resources. Refugees are people who have fled violence and persecution and are in need protection and stability. Refugee status is temporary, but what refugees need is an enduring sense of safety so they can make a positive contribution to their new communities."

It comes days after the Westminster All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees highlighted concerns about the change and called for it to be scrapped, and warned that refugees were being consigned to hunger and homelessness immediately after they are granted asylum. The research showed that Government policies were creating a costly "two-tier system" of refugee protection, with those who entered the country on Government-led resettlement schemes generally provided for, but others often being left homeless and destitute - damaging their prospects of integration.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 26, 2017 Wednesday 1:00 PM GMT 


Charities demand Government scraps 'devastating' new refugee policy;
New guidance to review refugees'cases five years after they are granted status 'violates the state's obligation to provide sanctuary to those it has granted the right to remain,' charities warn


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:3


LENGTH: 1144 words


A new refugee policy the Government quietly introduced last month will have a "devastating" impact on the mental health of those who have sought to make a new life in the UK, charities have warned.

An open letter signed by 50 organisations working with refugees calls on the Home Office to reverse the new policy, which they said aims to prevent refugees from integrating and introduces an "additional layer of bureaucracy, uncertainty, and evaluation at the hands of a dispassionate state".

New guidance quietly issued by the Home Office in March means that people who are granted refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK will now have to undergo a "safe return review" after five years, meaning the Home Office will assess whether they can return people to the countries they have fled from before they apply for permanent settlement.

Read more 

G4S warns asylum seekers 'behave or be deported'

Thousands of asylum seekers and migrants wrongly denied NHS healthcare

Refugees face homelessness immediately getting asylum, report finds

The charities that signed the letter, which include Right to Remain and Migrant Rights Network, say the policy "undermines" the promise of stability and security that should come with being granted refugee status in Britain, and that it "violates the state's obligation to provide sanctuary and refuge to those it has granted the right to remain".

They proceed to urge that the policy be "immediately reversed" due to the "societal and financial costs" it brings with it, warning that it is part of a "worrying trend" to weaken the concept of a refugee and to make the UK a "hostile environment" for migrants.

The letter states: "The awarding of refugee status should bring with it the promise of stability and security. It is a chance to build a new home, to study or work, to become a part of the community. The Home Office's decision to review every application at the end of the five years to see if their home country is 'safe' undermines this promise, bringing with it the threat of deportation.

"The announcement that those who have already been granted full rights as refugees will later have that decision reviewed violates the state's obligation to provide sanctuary and refuge to those it has granted the right to remain.

"This move is part of a worrying trend to weaken the concept of a refugee and to make the UK a 'hostile environment' for migrants. We call on the Home Office to reverse this decision. When a refugee's claim has been recognised, they should be given permanent residency."

Read more

G4S warns asylum seekers 'behave or be deported'

When informed of the new policy, Makhosi Sigabade, a refugee living in the UK, said: "After being given a false sense of hope and stability I am being made to relive the nightmares of my past. I am now confronted with a possibility of going back to face the same persecution from which I fled.

"The system is meant to protect people seeking sanctuary but threatens to expose them to the dangers they flee."

Luke Butterly, of the Participation and Practice of Rights, a small human rights charity in Belfast, said the changes were likely to bring "great instability" to the lives of refugees, affecting their mental health as well as employment prospects.

"Before, once you made the insanely difficult journey to the UK and went through the asylum process, you were here for life, but now Amber Rudd has put a time limit on this. They've said 'You can stay here for five years, but after that, who knows?'" Mr Butterly told

The Independent.

"The communities here in the asylum process in Northern Ireland are very concerned about this because of the great instability in people's lives it will bring. It will have a detrimental effect on mental health, as well as job prospects, with potential employers not knowing if they'll be here in two years' time."

Mr Butterly added that as well as being angry about the principle of introducing a "safe return review" after five years, there were concerns over the way it would be implemented in practice.

"At the moment, the Home Office often gets cases wrong - about a third of asylum claims are overturned in the appeals process. The guidance on the safety of countries is often widely inaccurate. We don't know how this policy will be applied in practice, but given the practices of the Home Office we are extremely anxious about it," he said.

Forward Maisokwadzo, of City of Sanctuary, which supports people seeking asylum in the UK, meanwhile, said: "These are worrying times for refugees and within us the City of Sanctuary movement. This is so, because the proposed 'inhuman' policy is a direct threat to the basic human rights.

"City of Sanctuary hold the vision that (the UK and Ireland) will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution. We appeal to Home Secretary Amber Rudd to do the honourable thing and listen carefully to all evidence put forward against this 'restrictive' policy and exercise compassion by ensuring refugee rights are protected."

Read more

Refugees face homelessness immediately getting asylum, report finds

The UNHCR has condemned the new policy, saying it could have a "serious impact on the wellbeing of refugees, their ability to settle and be in long-term employment", and that it will create a "source of anxiety" for refugees by "putting their lives on hold", as well as putting additional strain on the Government's resources.

Laura Padoan, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, said: "We are concerned that the UK's approach to active reviews of refugee status could have a serious impact on the wellbeing of refugees, their ability to settle and be in long-term employment. We know that it is a source of anxiety for many refugees, creating a sense that their lives are on hold.

"We feel that it's not needed, because under British and international law, there are already mechanisms to review and cease refugee status where appropriate. It will also clearly put an additional strain on the Government's resources.

"Refugees are people who have fled violence and persecution and are in need protection and stability. Refugee status is temporary, but what refugees need is an enduring sense of safety so they can make a positive contribution to their new communities."

It comes days after the Westminster All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugeeshighlighted concernsabout the change and called for it to be scrapped, and warned that refugees were being consigned to hunger and homelessness immediately after they are granted asylum.

The research showed that Government policies were creating a costly "two-tier system" of refugee protection, with those who entered the country on Government-led resettlement schemes generally provided for, but others often being left homeless and destitute - damaging their prospects of integration.


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Express Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 3:01 PM GMT 


'So now ISIS will hate us?' TV host stumps migration expert during car-crash interview


BYLINE: Oli Smith


LENGTH: 641 words


FOX NEWS host Tucker Carlson destroyed a prominent migrant campaigner during a heated on-air debate following Donald Trump's decision to suspend the US refugee programme.

Kevin Appleby, a migrant advocate, was left squirming during the car-crash interview as he desperately tried to defend the merits of the refugee influx.

The heated on-air spat comes after Donald Trump officially suspended the US refugee programme and banned Syrians indefinitely. 

Mr Appleby, who works for Migration and Refugee Services Office of Migration and Refugee Policy, attempted to condemn the President's controversial policy.

However, when he was left at a loss for words after the Fox News host persistently asked him for specific benefits of the refugee resettlement programme.

At one point during the interview, Mr Appleby even mentioned that the US had made Syria safer because of its efforts in accepting refugees.

FOX

The conservative news anchor went head-to-head over the refugee ban

As part of his stream of executive orders, President Trump banned the entry of Syrian refugees into the US yesterday until further notice.

The wide-ranging measures also banned all refugee admissions for four months.

He halted visas being issued to nationals of six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, for three months.

Mr Trump said the measures were intended to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

In response to this, Mr Applebly told the Fox News host Mr Carlson that Mr Trump was making a mistake.

He argued that accepting refugees had made America safer, rather than more vulnerable to terrorism.

He said: "This is both a soft power move and a humanitarian gesture. 

"Refugees are not threats. It takes them 2-3 years to get into this country 

"We have to show global leadership. Otherwise, the world is chaos."

GETTY

President Trump banned the entry of Syrian refugees into the US until further notice

Mr Carlson persistently asked the migrant advocate to give him just one benefits of the refugee programme.

He asked: "What's in it for Americans citizens? Name me one benefit the US has derived from the refugee resettlement. 

"Your claim is that it is an ISIS recruiting tool, that unless we let in people from Syria, ISIS is going to hate us?

"But don't they already hate us?"

The conservative television anchor pointed to the Boston bombings as well as attacks reported in Minnesota as evidence of the threat refugees pose to Americans.

Mr Carlson argued: "They were refugees brought here at public expense. 

"You say it's a Christian duty to accept them, but what is Christian if you are forcing others to pay for resettlements? 

"They are forcing me and other Americans to pay. How is that virtuous?"

GETTY

Rights groups have condemned the move

FOX

Mr Carlson persistently pressed his guest on the benefit of refugees

Last year, Mr Obama's administration admitted 10,000 Syrian refugees into the US.

During the election campaign, Mr Trump suggested a "total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".

Many left-leaning politicians condemned yesterday's move, noting that the order had been signed on Holocaust Memorial Day

Democrat Senator Kamala Harris said: "During the Holocaust, we failed to let refugees like Anne Frank into our country. We can't let history repeat itself."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was "profoundly saddened" and the president had sent "a shamefully different message" than the country's founding beliefs.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg also posted a lengthy note, saying he was "concerned" about the president's executive orders.

Related articles Madeleine Albright is 'READY' to register as Muslim, in 'solidarity' Migrant gang 'burn down women's centre' just WEEKS after it opened Trump orders BAN on refugees coming from Muslim countries


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March 30, 2017 Thursday


Uganda appeals for aid to support South Sudan refugees


LENGTH: 958 words


Text of report in English by Cecilia Okoth headlined "Uganda, UNHCR appeal over refugees surge" published by state-owned, mass-circulation Ugandan daily The New Vision website on 29 March

The government and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have appealed to the international community for urgent and massive support for thousands of South Sudan refugees who continue to pour in the country, fleeing brutal conflict back at home, coupled with lack of food.

The joint appeal was made by the prime minister of Uganda, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, noting that the influx of refugees is placing a huge strain on resources, presenting a big challenge. 

"Uganda has continued to maintain open borders but this unprecedented mass influx is placing enormous strain on our public services and local infrastructure. We continue to welcome our neighbours in their time of need but we urgently need the international community to assist as the situation is becoming increasingly critical," Rugunda said.

"We are at breaking point. Uganda cannot handle Africa's largest refugee crisis alone," Grandi said, adding: "The lack of international attention to the suffering of the South Sudanese people is failing some of the most vulnerable people in the world when they most desperately need our help."

Uganda currently hosts more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees, 572,000 new arrivals who have continued to stream into the country in desperate need of safety and help since 8 July 2016.

There are projections that the population of South Sudan refugees in Uganda is likely to rise above one million by mid this year, given that more than 172,000 of them have fled into Uganda since the beginning of the year. In March alone, there have more than 2,800 new arrivals.

However, chronic and severe under-funding has reached a point where critical life-saving help risks becoming dangerously compromised with transit and reception facilities rapidly becoming overwhelmed.

Major challenges are being faced in providing refugees with adequate food rations, health and educational services, and sufficient clean water; a dire situation further compounded by heavy rains.

Currently, UNHCR urgently needs more than a quarter of a billion dollars to support South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.

Children's situation

Another statement on the current state of children in the refugee camps, released by Save the Children shows that many of the children are malnourished and have malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections.

"Our biggest concern right now is that the under-funding of the response means that children, who comprise more than half of the total population (469,800), do not have access to adequate protection from abuse, health, nutrition, and education services in the settlements," said Save the Children Uganda country director Brechtje van Lith.

Similarly, out of 36,900 children of primary school-going age in Bidibidi settlement, Yumbe district, which hosts the largest number of South Sudanese refugees, only 52% (19,188) have access to education.

Van Lith said many of the children come to Uganda on their own, having been separated from or lost their parents during flight. However Bidibidi, the largest camp hosting South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, has 4,638 unaccompanied and separated children registered.

"These children often get lured into marriage, child labour to meet survival needs, as well as face exposure to sexual and physical abuse, particularly while under the care of adults other than their parents/guardians," Van Lith added.

Speaking at the 5th Human Rights Defenders (HRD) annual forum in Kampala on Friday last week, Beatrice Abaru, an HRD working with People Living with AIDS Network, an NGO in Yumbe District said a total of 10 cases of children within the community being defiled by adult refugees had been reported to police since January this year.

"Some of the refugees refuse to move to the camps and end up defiling children in the community. Many of the culprits are those that lost their spouses in the war," she said. By press time, Abubaker Musiho the DPC Yumbe district was not available to ascertain the claim.

The forum organized by the Human Rights Centre Uganda was aimed at establishing effective strategies in addressing the current issues embedded in the working environment of HRDs in Uganda.

Uganda has been hailed for its approach to dealing with refugees considered to be among the most progressive anywhere on the African continent.

Upon receiving refugee status, refugees are provided with small areas of land in settlements integrated within the local host community, a pioneering approach that enhances social cohesion and allows both refugees and host communities to live together peacefully.

In mid and South-West Uganda, land for these settlements is provided by government. In northern Uganda, where the vast majority of South Sudanese refugees are being hosted, the land has been donated by the local host community.

As a result, Uganda was chosen as a role model for pioneering a comprehensive approach to refugee protection that complements humanitarian responses with targeted development action, benefiting both refugees and the communities hosting them. This was adopted as part of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants at the UN General Assembly last year, and is now also being rolled out in other displacement crises - offering hope to millions of refugees worldwide.

However, with the current under-funding and the fastest-growing refugee emergency in the world, Uganda's ability to realise a model that allows refugees to thrive now risks being jeopardised.

Source: The New Vision website, Kampala, in English 0001 gmt 29 Mar 17


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standard.co.uk


June 20, 2017 Tuesday 11:42 AM GMT 


World Refugee Day: How to celebrate and show support in London;
A host of events are being held to mark World Refugee Day and Refugee Week


BYLINE: BEN NORUM


SECTION: EVENTS & ATTRACTIONS; Version:2


LENGTH: 656 words


Refugee Week runs from 19-25 June while today, June 20, marks World Refugee Day.

Initiated by the UN, it is a time to commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees and show public support for them, as well as to celebrate what they bring to our communities.

Events taking place across the week and beyond in London include film screenings, touching art displays, Syrian feasts and the chance to meet the teams on the front line. 

RefuTEA party

Read more

Everything you need to know about World Refugee Day

The Refugee Council is celebrating Refugee Week by holding an afternoon tea party this Sunday for friends and supporters. It will take place from 2.30-5pm at Friends Housein Euston and simply involves an afternoon coming together to meet and chat over tea and cake. Tickets are free, register here.

Eat for Syria

The end of the week will see the launch of Cook For Syria's pop-up restaurant, which is running as part of London Food Month. It is raising money for Unicef's Next Generation fund and is run by Imad Alarnab, who arrived in London in 2015 after fleeing his home city of Damascus where he was a chef. The pop-up will run for a week and cost £48.17 a head. Buy tickets here.

Bottomless dining

To mark World Refugee Day, Marylebone's Maroush Gardensrestaurant will be hosting an evening of bottomless food, wine and beer for £80 a head, with proceeds going to the Syria Relief Organisation.

Meet the charity teams

Read more

Syrian refugee launches pop-up restaurant in east London

The team at Help4Refugee Childrenis hosting the Refugee Week Family Festival at the Brixton Pound Caféthis Saturday. Go along to hear from organisations including Refugee Children's Centresand Raw Materialand learn more about the work they have done with refugees in the UK and abroad. Entrance is free, but donations welcome - and tickets should be booked in advance.

First-hand stories

For an incredible first-hand insight into life as a refugee, visit Friends Housetonight to hear a discussion from contributors to the new-writing anthologies Refugee Stories, A Country of Refuge, and Over Land Over Sea discuss their experiences of seeking sanctuary in Britain. It runs from 6.30-8.30pm and is free, but booking is recommended.

Catch a film

Read more

The Bike Project: free rides given to London refugees

Released in cinemas today, Home tells the story of a comfortable English family experience a life changing journey - reversing the route that many refugees have taken to come to Europe. Starring Jack O'Connell and Holliday Grainger, the film shows the realities and trauma of being refugees as within the family, roles of leadership and bravery are passed from one parent to another.

Stories through art

Three exhibitions across the capital will be telling the stories of life - and death - as a refugee.

A Perilous Journey: Stories of Migration

The stories of two men and two women fleeing conflict and persecution are told in literary comic form in this exhibition in Bloomsbury. They are created by award-winning non-profit PositiveNegatives, who use visual storytelling to engage people of all ages in humanitarian issues.

June 21-24, Brunei Gallery; soas.ac.uk/gallery

In Transit: Life in the Refugee Camps of Northern France

Read more

Calais Jungle's Good Chance theatre is coming to the Southbank

This photographic installation captures life in the Calais Jungle and the Dunkirk refugee camps before they were shut down. The pictures are by Jacky Chapman and Janine Wiedel, with over 200 images showing the daily experiences of those living increasingly precarious lives.

June 24 - July 6, Gallery 101; in-transit-photos.com

Misplaced

The life of young Alan Kurdi, found drowned on a beach in 2015, will be commemorated in this art exhibition, which will also feature live music and a film. The Stoke Newington arts centre will be collecting donations in their cafe throughout the event.

Until July 20, Most Art Centre; alan-kurdi.com


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The Guardian


February 2, 2017 Thursday 6:35 AM GMT 


Q&A: what is the Australian refugee deal and why has it angered Trump?;
The background to the resettlement agreement that has sparked an outburst from the American president and now strains US-Australian relations


BYLINE: Christopher Knaus and Ben Doherty in Sydney


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 935 words


A single tweet from Donald Trump threatened to implode the Australia-US refugee resettlement deal on Thursday, forcing Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull into an exceedingly difficult and embarrassing position.

So how did we get here? Who are those caught up in the resettlement deal, and why was it so critical for the government to find somewhere for them to go? Here's some background to today's events.

Who are those caught up in the deal?  

Related: Australia struggling to save refugee agreement after Trump's fury at 'dumb deal'

The deal relates to 1,250 refugees held on Australia's offshore detention camps on Nauru and Manus Island, including many from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Iraq. The refugees, some of whom are stateless, have spent years languishing in the offshore detention camps, which the United Nations has repeatedly criticised as cruel and illegal. The refugees are unable to go home, but cannot come to Australia, even where confirmed to be genuine refugees, because they travelled to Australia by boat. The vast majority of those in Australia's offshore detention regime have been confirmed to have a valid claim to refugee status, meaning they are legally owed Australia's protection. On Nauru, 983 of the 1,200 refugee status determinations were positive, while 217 were negative. On Manus Island, 78% of 859 the people finally assessed were found to be refugees, while 190 have been found not to have a claim for protection. The deal was also to include hundreds of refugees who were in Australia receiving medical care, provided they had been found to be refugees.

What was the deal? And why was it so crucial for the Australian government?

In November, the US agreed to take an undisclosed number of refugees from Australia's offshore detention regime. The resettlement option was only to be available for detainees who have been found to be refugees (under the refugees convention). Others who were negatively assessed on their protection claim would not be deemed eligible. Applicants were to be interviewed twice by US officials before being resettled, in a process that was to take between six and 12 months. If a refugee missed out on US resettlement, the existing options of Papua New Guinea and Cambodia were still available.

The deal was seen as a significant win for the Turnbull government. Australia has searched in vain for a sustainable plan for refugees. For more than three years Australia has consistently maintained it will never settle asylum-seekers on the Australian mainland that arrive by boat, a position which is popular with voters and supported by both main parties. But the policy has led to regular reports of human rights abuses, many of them documented in the Guardian's publication of the Nauru files, and is bitterly condemned by refugees advocates inside and outside Australia.

At the time of the US agreement, only 24 refugees had resettled in PNG, and a handful in Cambodia. The Manus detention centre had been declared illegal by the PNG supreme court, and Australia was under pressure over allegations on Nauru of sexual abuse on women and children, assaults of children, rape, widespread mental harm and epidemic rates of self-harm and suicide attempts.

Why is it now under threat?

There was considerable consternation that the election of Trump, who campaigned with strong anti-immigrant rhetoric, may undermine the deal. That was heightened when Trump on Saturday signed an executive order placing a four-month suspension on entry of refugees into the US, and temporarily barring travellers from seven Muslim-dominated countries.

Related: The Nauru files: cache of 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention

On Sunday, a phone call between Turnbull and Trump took place. Turnbull maintains that, during the call, Trump committed to honouring the refugee resettlement deal. That was later confirmed by the US state department and US embassy in Canberra. But a report in The Washington Post cast the Trump-Turnbull conversation in an entirely different light. It was reported that Trump had described the deal as "the worst deal ever" and complained that Australia was trying to send the US the "next Boston bombers". Trump poured petrol on the fire by later tweeting: "Do you believe it? The Obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!"

Where to from here?

The unpredictability of Trump makes the way forward difficult to gauge. Turnbull has said that, despite Trump's comments, the refugee resettlement deal is still on. But the intensity of Trump's rhetoric, and the deal's obvious with the policies of his administration, including the travel ban, make it an increasingly unlikely prospect.

The fate of 1,250 refugees is now hanging in the balance. If the US deal falls over, there are two options: find another third-country resettlement option, or bring them to Australia. The Turnbull government would not contemplate the latter, and the former will take many, many months, likely years. Alternatively, it has been suggested that Trump could still honour the deal but simply accept none of the refugees who apply. Trump's twitter outburst makes implementing the deal much less likely.


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MailOnline


February 10, 2017 Friday 1:36 PM GMT 


State Department has nearly doubled the intake of refugees from the seven travel ban countries since judge put a halt to the order


BYLINE: ASHLEY COLLMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 884 words



Since Trump 's travel ban was halted last week, the intake of refugees from the seven targeted countries has more than doubled. 

Analysts said that the move is a coordinated effort by the State Department to let in as many refugees from these countries as possible, in case the ban is reinstated by the Supreme Court.

The travel ban halted all citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen from entering the U.S. for at least 90 days - regardless of their immigration or residency status in the U.S.

The order also put America's refugee program on an immediate 120-day halt, and stopped all refugees from Syria from entering the U.S. refugee program indefinitely. 

The executive order caused chaos as soon as it was signed on January 27, with customs officials unsure what to do about people from the seven countries arriving at U.S. airports - unaware of the order. Critics quickly filed challenges to the ban in court and on February 3, Judge James Robart halted the order on the basis that it was likely violating the law.

Since then, people from the seven countries are being allowed to enter the country and many are rushing to return to the U.S. in case the doors close again. The State Department appears to be ramping up their efforts to let refugees from the seven countries into the U.S. as well.

In the week since the ban has been halted, 1,186 refugees have been let into the country - 882 of them from the seven travel ban countries.

That's nearly double what the State Department was letting in in the week before Trump signed the order. 

The intake of Syrian and Iraqi refugees has changed the most dramatically since the order was halted. 

Between Trump's inauguration on January 20 and when he signed the ban on January 27, Syrians made up just 14 per cent of the total refugees being let into the country. Since February 3, Syrians now make up 30 per cent of all refugees entering the country. Iraq went from 10 per cent of all refugees before the ban to 21 per cent after. 

Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the right-wing think tank Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Times the new numbers show that the State Department is prioritizing refugee resettlement over the security of American citizens.  

Country Jan. 20 - Jan 27*Percentage of total refugees Feb. 3 - Feb. 10** Percentage of total refugees Iran155 7%109 9% Iraq 218 10% 252 21% Libya 0 0% 0 0% Somalia 228 11% 130 11% Sudan 37 37% 32 3% Syria 296 14% 359 30% Yemen 1 .04% 0 0% Total: 935 44% 882 74% * January 20 was the day Trump was inaugurated; The 27th was the day he signed the travel ban order

** February 3 is the day that the travel ban was halted, thus opening the doors to immigration from the target countries  

Source: The Refugee Processing Center

 'There's no doubt in my mind they would be doing whatever they could to get people in before something changes because, from their perspective, their motivation is to resettle these folks. It would not be the first time that State Department officials have prioritized facilitating someone's entry to the United States over security concerns,' Vaughan said.  

But those who work in refugee resettlement say the increase could be a coincidence, since the highest priority refugees - such as ones with urgent medical issues - are likely to be from the seven banned nations anyway. 

'What I would hope for is we find a way to communicate with this administration and find a way to sit down and understand why are these, what I'll call alternative facts, about the danger of refugees being presented, because it's just not correct,' Erol Kekic, executive director of the Church World Service's refugee program, told the Washington Times.  

Trump's reason for halting immigration from the seven countries is that he doesn't believe that citizens from these nations are being screened enough before they enter the U.S. He says stopping immigration until the system can be revamped will prevent domestic terrorist attacks. 

Many in the refugee resettlement community argue that the process is already strict enough, and that terrorists aren't disguising themselves as refugees to get into the U.S., but Trump got an unlikely supporter in his beliefs from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this week.

The Syrian President said that some of the refugees that are fleeing his country are 'definitely terrorists'.  

In addition to the growth of ISIS - which has taken over a large swath of Syria - the country has been embroiled in a Civil War between Assad's supporters and rebels since 2011.

Assad's forces - backed by Russia - have been accused by the UN of committing war crimes on their own people in the struggle.  


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FinancialWire


February 21, 2017 Tuesday


Severe Food Shortages Hit Africa's Refugees Hard - UNHCR and WFP Warn


LENGTH: 570 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- The Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, are very concerned that critical shortages in food assistance are affecting some 2 million refugees in 10 countries across Africa. 



The shortages could worsen in coming months without new resources to meet food needs.

The number of refugees in Africa nearly doubled from 2.6 million in 2011 to nearly 5 million in 2016. While donor funding for refugee assistance increased during this period, it did not keep pace with rapidly rising needs. As a result, the humanitarian response is significantly underfunded. This has forced cuts in food assistance for some groups of refugees.

The two agency heads warn that food shortages will have dire consequences on the health and protection of such vulnerable people, unless more support is urgently made available.

"We can't imagine how difficult life is for thousands of refugee families with no food, and often denied the possibility to work or provide for themselves in other ways. Refugees are extraordinarily resilient, but cuts in food assistance - sometimes as high as 50 percent - are having a devastating impact on the health and nutrition of thousands of families," said UNHCR's Grandi. "The right to food is a basic human right. We are working with WFP to ensure that no refugee goes to sleep hungry, but support has to come quickly."

"Millions of refugees depend on WFP food and our work to treat and prevent malnutrition to stay alive. But in Africa they are in danger of being overshadowed by large humanitarian crises elsewhere," said Cousin. "Donors have been very generous facing unprecedented global needs. But no refugee deserves to be abandoned and left behind."

UNHCR and WFP recognize the very concerning food security and nutrition situation in the Horn of Africa and the unprecedented needs for assistance. Individuals are fleeing Somalia and South Sudan and arriving as refugees in critical condition. Over 75 percent of the Somali refugee children who have arrived in Dollo Ado in Ethiopia since January were acutely malnourished.

Ten refugee operations in Africa have experienced cuts affecting the quantity and quality of food assistance for approximately 2 million refugees. Food rations have been dramatically cut - in some cases by up to 50 percent - in large operations including Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Mauritania, South Sudan and Uganda.

Refugees in Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Burundi and Ethiopia have had specific commodities cut including micronutrient fortified blended foods, needed to ensure an adequate quality diet.

UNHCR and WFP are concerned that sustained cuts to food assistance will have severe nutrition and protection-related consequences as refugees try to cope by skipping meals, pulling their children out of schools to stay at home or work and selling family assets.

The nutritional situation of these refugees before the cuts to food assistance was already worrying and is now worsening. Nutrition surveys in 2016 documented high levels of acute malnutrition, anaemia and stunting. In many refugee sites in Ethiopia, Chad, Sudan and Djibouti acute malnutrition is 'critical' and anaemia is greater than 40 percent, indicating a public health crisis.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



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FinancialWire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


World Refugee Day: Constrained resources for nearly a million refugees in Uganda


LENGTH: 778 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- The international response in Uganda is failing refugees and must prioritise life-saving supplies such as food and water to prevent a medical emergency, the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors without Borders (MSF) said today ahead of a major refugee summit. 



Governments and international organisations are meeting in Kampala on 22 and 23 June to raise funds for Uganda's refugee response. The country currently hosts 950,562 refugees and receives about 2,000 new arrivals every day, the vast majority of them fleeing violence in South Sudan. Uganda is a pilot country for the UNHCR-led Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), which aims to improve the situation of refugees and host communities through increasing self-reliance and enhancing cooperation between the UNHCR, governments, NGOs, and other actors.

Inadequate resources, coupled with poor water and sanitation conditions and a shortage of food rations, could quickly turn the situation into a medical emergency. In Palorinya, 80 percent of the population is 100 percent dependent on water treated by MSF, which is unsustainable. "Currently the most basic needs of refugees are not being met," says Tara Newell, MSF's operations manager for Uganda. Even though we are pumping and treating record amounts of water in Palorinya, it's always only just barely enough for the population." The majority of refugees who live in settlements without water plants and who rely on a handful of boreholes and water trucks get seven litres per person per day. Access to water in the settlements is dependent on water trucking, a hugely expensive system often derailed by poor road conditions. "Without a longer term and more cost-effective solution, people's ability to cope, as well as their health, will deteriorate," says Newell.

Following 50 percent cuts to the monthly food rations distributed by the World Food Programme, the number of people critically short of food in the settlements is also a major concern. MSF is seeing refugees registering in multiple settlements because they are desperate for food rations and water, and there are reports of inconsistent or incomplete core relief items distributions in the settlements. Refugees have cited food insecurity as a major concern and have even prompted some to return to South Sudan. "I'd rather get shot in South Sudan than starve in Uganda," one refugee told MSF staff. Teams have also heard stories of refugees who returned to South Sudan because of a lack of food in Uganda, only to be killed. "Refugees are being put in an unimaginable position - to go without food and water, or risk their lives in a conflict just so they can eat," says Dr. Leon Salumu, MSF program manager.

Keeping pace with the growing refugee population is proving impossible and the Ugandan Government is increasingly stretched. Some refugees have been moved to sites far away from water sources or cultivatable land, such as the Ofua zone in the western part of Rhino settlement. Better site planning, which maximizes access to services such as water, sanitation and healthcare, is needed to ensure the basic needs of refugees are met.

Health interventions have also been complicated by the time-consuming nature of regular importation procedures for medical supplies. For example, for two months this year, MSF was unable to offer safe deliveries, or treat eye and skin diseases, two common morbidities in the settlements, because of the lengthy bureaucratic requirements for importing medical supplies. MSF requests the Government of Uganda expedite pending importation requests and to fast-track medical importations for emergency health kits and medical supplies to facilitate a scale-up of the emergency medical response.

Uganda is now the largest host of refugees in Africa, taking in more than triple the amount of people who arrived in Europe by sea in 2016. Many countries have shamefully introduced restrictive migration policies and sought to limit the arrival of refugees at their borders, promising instead to support refugees closer to their country of origin. Yet they have not delivered on this promise - the Uganda refugee response is only 17 percent funded. "The international community has failed to help resolve the conflict in South Sudan and is now failing to adequately help South Sudanese refugees in the region," says Salumu. "The international community needs to step up to its obligations and rethink the ways services are delivered to refugees spread out across such vast geographical distances."

Distributed by APO on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 2:17 AM GMT 


Australia's refugee deal in jeopardy after Trump's 'extreme vetting' order;
Human rights officials say Malcolm Turnbull must immediately outline a plan for those imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 939 words


The executive order of the US president, Donald Trump, slashing the country's refugee intake, appears set to kill off Australia's nascent deal to resettle refugees there from its offshore detention camps.

Trump signed the executive order to drastically limit the US's intake of migrants from Muslim-majority countries on Saturday morning Australia-time.

The order suspends the granting of visas to people from Iraq, Syria or any other "country of concern" for 90 days. Other countries of concern are expected to be nominated as Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 

Syrians have been banned from entering the US as refugees indefinitely. All refugee intake into the US has been stopped for 120 days.

The order also caps the total number of refugees entering the US in 2017 to 50,000 - less than half the 2016 figure of 117,000.

The executive order will have global consequences. For decades, the US has been, by far, the largest "third-country" resettler of refugees in the world.

In November, the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the then US president Barack Obama brokered a deal for the US to resettle some of the refugees held on the Australian-run offshore detention centres of Manus Island in PNG, and Nauru.

About 2000 asylum seekers and refugees are held on the islands, and most have been there for more than three years. The camps have been blighted by deaths, systemic violence, sexual abuse - including of children, maltreatment, poor healthcare, and self-harm and suicide attempts.

Iranian refugees make up the largest group on Manus and Nauru. There are also significant Iraqi, Sudanese and Somali cohorts likely to be affected by the US order.

In the face of speculation over Trump's promised executive order, the Australian government has insisted that the US resettlement deal would progress, regardless of its content, but there is growing concern, given the breadth and strength of the Trump decree, that the Australian deal will be scotched too.

Related: Barnaby Joyce says 'not the end of the world' if Australia-US refugee deal falls through

The 120-day suspension of all refugee resettlement to the US means the resettlement deal cannot progress for at least four months.

Officials from the US were on Manus as recently as last week, outlining the details of the proposed resettlement deal. The Resettlement Support Centre East Asia, an arm of the International Rescue Committee, has been contracted to oversee the resettlement.

The process was expected to involve several interviews, and take between six and 12 months.

On Manus Island, the Iranian refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani said that refugees, already sceptical about the genuineness of the US deal, believed it was all but dead.

"It is hard to believe that Manus and Nauru refugees will be resettled in the US. Do not forget his promises and his slogans were against migrants and refugees.

"I don't trust the government and I think they know that Trump won't accept us. It is only a political game for wasting time."

Imran Fazal Hoque, a Rohingyan refugee on Manus, told the Guardian from the detention centre he was shocked that Trump's order stated that Christian refugees would be given priority among people seeking protection.

"No human should be judged based on their religion or the colour of their skin.

"It is becoming ever more impossible to believe that the deal to resettle the refugees from Manus Island to the US will ever go ahead."

A Sudanese refugee on Manus, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, said the men held on Manus did not know whom to believe on the future of the Australia-US deal.

"It's very strange, we have really lost hope, we are devastated."

Writing in the Guardian, the director of legal advocacy for the Human Rights Law Centre, Daniel Webb, said the executive order "clearly impacts many, if not most, of the men, women and children currently stuck on Nauru and Manus".

"While there may possibly still be a painfully long and narrow road to the US for some, it's now crystal clear that the US deal won't ensure safety for all.

Related: US officials visit Manus Island as Australia's refugee deal set to proceed

"When prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the US deal, he was quite rightly acknowledging that he couldn't just leave people languishing in limbo on Nauru and Manus forever. Having finally conceded that Nauru and Manus are dead ends, it is our government's responsibility to urgently find a humane way forward."

Matthew Phillips, the human rights campaign director with GetUp!, said that taken at face value, the executive order ended all hope of a timely resettlement program with the US.

"In brokering the agreement, the Turnbull government acknowledged that the policy of offshore detention is untenable and that it could no longer detain men, women and children indefinitely and without trial in abusive conditions. Now the onus is on Malcolm Turnbull to immediately outline a plan to provide safety for all those unlawfully imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru, starting with the urgent evacuation of the camps."

Phillips said the policy of offshore detention was in "utter disarray".

"The PNG supreme court has ruled the Manus detention centre illegal and the government has no company willing to run the camps after October this year. Now that the resettlement arrangement seems unlikely to work out, Malcolm Turnbull must outline a plan to provide safety for all."

The Guardian has sought comment from the office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, as well as the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 2:17 AM GMT 


Australia's refugee deal in jeopardy after Trump's 'extreme vetting' order;
Human rights officials say Malcolm Turnbull must immediately outline a plan for those imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 998 words


The executive order of the US president, Donald Trump, slashing the country's refugee intake, appears set to kill off Australia's nascent deal to resettle refugees there from its offshore detention camps.

Trump signed the executive order to drastically limit the US's intake of migrants from Muslim-majority countries on Saturday morning Australia-time.

The order suspends the granting of visas to people from Iraq, Syria or any other "country of concern" for 90 days. Other countries of concern are expected to be nominated as Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 

Syrians have been banned from entering the US as refugees indefinitely. All refugee intake into the US has been stopped for 120 days.

The order also caps the total number of refugees entering the US in 2017 to 50,000 - less than half the 2016 figure of 117,000.

The executive order will have global consequences. For decades, the US has been, by far, the largest "third-country" resettler of refugees in the world.

In November, the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the then US president Barack Obama brokered a deal for the US to resettle some of the refugees held on the Australian-run offshore detention centres of Manus Island in PNG, and Nauru.

About 2000 asylum seekers and refugees are held on the islands, and most have been there for more than three years. The camps have been blighted by deaths, systemic violence, sexual abuse - including of children, maltreatment, poor healthcare, and self-harm and suicide attempts.

Iranian refugees make up the largest group on Manus and Nauru. There are also significant Iraqi, Sudanese and Somali cohorts likely to be affected by the US order.

In the face of speculation over Trump's promised executive order, the Australian government has insisted that the US resettlement deal would progress, regardless of its content, but there is growing concern, given the breadth and strength of the Trump decree, that the Australian deal will be scotched too.

Related: Barnaby Joyce says 'not the end of the world' if Australia-US refugee deal falls through

The 120-day suspension of all refugee resettlement to the US means the resettlement deal cannot progress for at least four months.

Officials from the US were on Manus as recently as last week, outlining the details of the proposed resettlement deal. The Resettlement Support Centre East Asia, an arm of the International Rescue Committee, has been contracted to oversee the resettlement.

The process was expected to involve several interviews, and take between six and 12 months.

On Manus Island, the Iranian refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani said that refugees, already sceptical about the genuineness of the US deal, believed it was all but dead. "It is hard to believe that Manus and Nauru refugees will be resettled in the US. Do not forget his promises and his slogans were against migrants and refugees.

"I don't trust the government and I think they know that Trump won't accept us. It is only a political game for wasting time."

Imran Mohammad Fazal Hoque, a Rohingyan refugee on Manus, told the Guardian from the detention centre he was shocked that Trump's order stated that Christian refugees would be given priority among people seeking protection. "No human should be judged based on their religion or the colour of their skin.

"It is becoming ever more impossible to believe that the deal to resettle the refugees from Manus Island to the US will ever go ahead."

A Sudanese refugee on Manus, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, said the men held on Manus did not know whom to believe on the future of the Australia-US deal. "It's very strange, we have really lost hope, we are devastated."

Writing in the Guardian, the director of legal advocacy for the Human Rights Law Centre, Daniel Webb, said the executive order "clearly impacts many, if not most, of the men, women and children currently stuck on Nauru and Manus".

"While there may possibly still be a painfully long and narrow road to the US for some, it's now crystal clear that the US deal won't ensure safety for all.

Related: US officials visit Manus Island as Australia's refugee deal set to proceed

"When prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the US deal, he was quite rightly acknowledging that he couldn't just leave people languishing in limbo on Nauru and Manus forever. Having finally conceded that Nauru and Manus are dead ends, it is our government's responsibility to urgently find a humane way forward."

Matthew Phillips, the human rights campaign director with GetUp, said that taken at face value, the executive order ended all hope of a timely resettlement program with the US.

"In brokering the agreement, the Turnbull government acknowledged that the policy of offshore detention is untenable and that it could no longer detain men, women and children indefinitely and without trial in abusive conditions. Now the onus is on Malcolm Turnbull to immediately outline a plan to provide safety for all those unlawfully imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru, starting with the urgent evacuation of the camps."

Phillips said the policy of offshore detention was in "utter disarray".

"The PNG supreme court has ruled the Manus detention centre illegal and the government has no company willing to run the camps after October this year. Now that the resettlement arrangement seems unlikely to work out, Malcolm Turnbull must outline a plan to provide safety for all."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is due to speak to Trump on the phone over the weekend, sought to allay fears on Saturday.

"You will have seen the executive order that has been published today and we are very confident and satisfied that the arrangement, the existing arrangements will continue," Turnbull told reporters in Port Lincoln.

The Guardian has sought comment from the office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, as well as the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.


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FinancialWire


May 5, 2017 Friday


"Sports and Refugees Project" for Uganda


LENGTH: 751 words


KAMPALA, Uganda -- In the framework of the 'Sports and Refugees Project (S4R)' for Uganda, implemented by the Ministry of Education and Sports with support from the Embassy of The Federal Republic of Germany in Kampala, 3 S4R activities were conducted: 



i) A S4R strategy workshop that brought together participants from government departments, development partners, district local government, non-governmental organisations, sports federations and the media working with refugee communities in education, sports, relief supplies and general settlement management. This workshop held at Nob View Hotel Kampala from 16th - 20th November 2016 provided a platform for engaging the refugee settlement community as lots of experiences were shared by participants especially those already engaging the refugees.

ii) 2 IAAF Kid's Athletics Activator workshops were held in Adjumani (Nyumanzi Refugee Settlement (25th-27th November 2016) and Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement (29th November-1st December 2016). The workshops introduced young leaders to Kid's Athletics (Running, Jumping and Throwing movements) so that they can organise regular physical activity for the children for sanitation, integration and mobilization of community to address issues beyond family. This workshop attracted 71 young leaders (19 females and 52 males). 16 participants were drawn from the community neighboring the refugee settlements while the rest were refugees majority of whom were from South Sudan. The workshops were facilitated by IAAF Lecturers and all participants received IAAF Kid's Athletics Activator certificate. As young sports leaders in the community the workshop provided them with possibilities to engage in physical activities at cluster and settlement level.

iii) At the end of the workshop, Sports Festivals were held at Nyumanzi Youth Learning Centre for Adjumani (28th November 2016) and at Arnold Memorial Primary School for Kiryandongo (2nd December 2016). The festival in Adjumani attracted over 1550 children and Kiryandongo over 1650 who participated in Kid's Athletics skills display. In total we reached to over 3200 children in both venues.

On Wednesday, 3rd May 2017, the German Embassy in Kampala through Chargé d'Affaires a.i., Ms. Petra Kochendörfer, officially handed over sports equipment to the Commissioner for Physical Education and Sports Mr. Lamex Omara Apitta and Commissioner for Refugees Mr. David Apollo Kazungu to be delivered to the two refugee settlements in Adjumani and Kiryandongo. These sports materials are provided to continue to motivate the young people in the refugee settlements to organise and participate in physical activity regularly in their respective host communities.

Chargé d'Affaires a.i., Ms. Petra Kochendörfer, expressed German Embassy's continued support to young people to participate in sports and advised the beneficiaries to put to use the

donated equipment. She commended Uganda's open-minded refugee policy having welcomed nearly 1.2 Million refugees by end of April 2017 and considering that children and young compose majority of this, sport as a school for life as it teaches fairness, teamwork and trust.

The Commissioner for Physical Education and Sports Mr. Lamex Omara Apitta lauded the German Government for their exemplary accommodative Refugee policy which resonates well with Uganda's Refugee policy and has enabled sports to be used as a tool for peace building and integration of communities within and around the refugee settlements.

The Commissioner for Refugees Mr. David Apollo Kazungu commended the German Embassy for their support to the sports and refugees project which he stated has been used to bring hope to the hopeless and reduce idleness among young people and utilise their time in refugeehood to become productive and better their sports skills. The leadership structures in the settlements will be responsible of the sports materials which will cater for not only Kid's Athletics but also football, volleyball and basketball.

The Project Coordinator Mr. Innocent Asiimwe extolled the German government for such timely engagement especially when Uganda is experiencing a huge influx of refugees fleeing conflict especially in South Sudan. The sports materials donated to the refugee settlements will go a long way in getting young people together, play and have fun and learn to make better life choices.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Kampala.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:37 AM GMT 


Syrian refugee has dreams of moving his family to U.S. shattered by Trump's immigration bans after starting security screenings three months ago


BYLINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 588 words



Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings. 

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Trump suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S. for four months and banned the entry of Syrian refugees indefinitely, pending a security review of the admissions program in an executive order signed on Friday.

In a third step, he issued a 90-day ban on all entry to the U.S. from countries with terrorism concerns, including Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since the conflict there erupted in 2011. Millions more are displaced within Syria.

Most refugees have settled in overburdened neighboring countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey where the struggle for survival has become increasingly difficult. Savings have run out, jobs are scarce and poorly paid, while refugee children learn in crowded classrooms and have very limited access to higher education.

Many refugees say their first choice is to return home as soon as possible. But with the civil war dragging on, that's not an option and refugees increasingly pursue resettlement to the West because of tough conditions in regional host countries.

International aid agencies harshly criticized Trump's restrictions imposed on refugees.

The International Rescue Committee said the suspension of the refugee resettlement program was a 'harmful and hasty' decision. 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope,' said IRC President David Miliband.

The group said the U.S. vetting process for refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by 12 to 15 government agencies.

Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Trump's decision hurts innocents fleeing extremist violence in Syria.

'It will not make America safer,' Egeland told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Norway. 'It will make America smaller and meaner. It's a really sad rupture of a long and proud American bi-partisan tradition that America would be there for those fleeing from terror and for the weak and the vulnerable in the world, which are the refugees.'

The NRC is a leading refugee aid agency, assisting more than 1 million Syrians. 


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chesterchronicle.co.uk


March 21, 2017 Tuesday 3:25 PM GMT 


Chester students complete pilgrimage to Rome in solidarity with refugees;
University of Chester group attended audience with the Pope during five-day visit


BYLINE: By Chester Chronicle


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 547 words


Students fromChestertravelled to Rome carrying a cross carved from the driftwood of refugee boats and attended an audience with Pope Francis, who spoke of 'welcoming the stranger.'

To mark the beginning of Lent, a selection of students studying at theUniversity of Chestermade a five-day pilgrimage to the Italian capital. The students, who are part of the Catholic society, dedicate their annual pilgrimage to the refugee crisis after being inspired by the Lampedusa Cross. 

The cross, which is carved from the wreckage of refugee boats, was made by Italian carpenter Francisco Tuccio, after meeting survivors from a refugee boat disaster which killed more than 300 people.

The crosses have become international symbols of hope after Pope Francis carried a cross at a memorial service for those who had perished and the aid agency, CAFOD, ran a campaign which saw every cathedral in the UK display one. During their trip, the students attended Lampedusa service which involved a prayer service and a discussion.

Gyles Brandreth is offically installed as University of Chester chancellor

Society vice president Siobhan Doyle, who is currently in her fourth year studying international development and Spanish, said: "The Lampedusa service was a beautiful way to remember the challenges refugees face both overseas and in the UK and reminded us that we need to do more to support the millions of refugees.

"We noticed that Italy had a different approach to the refugee crisis, there were posters around the airport about supporting refugees; this was an interesting point as, during our discussion, we talked the challenges refugees face regarding mental health, which is often forgotten about."

Joseph Barnes, a first-year politics student, added: "Our service for refugees was very powerful and reminded us all to always welcome the stranger."

The students were blessed to have an audience with Pope Francis. Jacob Hutchinson, a third-year theology and religious studies student and president of the society, said: "When having the honour to listen to Pope Francis, he asked the question 'is it better to be an atheist rather than a bad Catholic?' This struck me, because I was not doing enough to help organisations and communities especially in Chester and throughout the UK who work with refugees.

"So, with the words of Pope Francis still fresh, my Lenten challenge is to find an organisation and do my part in helping refugees in any way I can."

The aid agency CAFOD, which works work with refugees in various countries including Syria and surrounding countries Lebanon and Turkey, have collected more than 25,000 messages of hope from UK communities to share with refugees. During their trip, the students also wrote their own messages.

Third year primary education student Sarah Mather said "Writing messages to refugees was a thoughtful and beautiful way of showing God's love across the world."

CAFOD is working with local partner organisations in Europe and beyond to provide practical help to those fleeing their homes, calling on the UK government to take a fair and proportionate share of refugees - from both within and outside the European Union - and pushing for the establishment of safe and legal routes to enable refugees to reach safety.

Find out more at:cafod.org.uk/refugees


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The Guardian(London)


February 21, 2017 Tuesday 1:11 AM GMT 


Finding jobs faster for new refugees a 'triple win' for Australia, report finds;
Study shows helping new arrivals into employment more quickly would aid Australia's economy, benefit vulnerable people and improve social cohesion


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 752 words


Helping newly arrived refugees into jobs more quickly would be a "triple win" for Australia, benefiting vulnerable people, aiding Australia's budget bottom line, and improving social cohesion and integration, a new report says.

The study by the Centre for Policy Development shows only 17% of refugees are in paid work 18 months after arriving in Australia, and they are finding jobs with limited prospects.

Many refugees who do find work in Australia take jobs below their skill or qualification level. About 60% held highly skilled jobs in their home countries, but about 26% find similar-level work in Australia. 

Related: Jobs the key to doubling refugee intake, says resettlement chief

Two out of five refugees find work as labourers, the report found, but demand for that work is diminishing in Australia's transitioning economy. Others find work as drivers or machinery operators, but demand in those occupations is stagnant.

Five key factors hold refugees back from entering the workforce: limited English, a lack of work experience, poor health, limited opportunities for women and having been in Australia for a short period. Of those factors, speaking English well appears to be a key factor in finding work. 85% of refugees who speak English well are in the labour market, compared with 15% who do not speak English well.

Getting more refugees into work more quickly is the "bedrock for successful settlement", the CDP report found.

"While employment rates improve with time, to get more refugees into jobs more quickly would be a triple win: it would benefit vulnerable people, boost the budget and improve social cohesion."

If labour market outcomes could be improved by 25%, refugees could earn an additional $2.5bn over a decade, adding $1bn to the government's bottom line, the report said.

Travers McLeod, chief executive of the CPD, said there were practical steps Australia could take to improve refugees' chances of finding sustainable work in Australia.

Related: Syrian refugees in Canada's north: 'It's not warm in weather, but warm in emotions '

"We can invest in targeted employment assistance focused on the barriers we have identified. We can leverage overseas best practice - better skills recognition, better private employer and community sponsorship options, and microfinance programs, particularly for women. We can establish a centre of gravity for post-arrival settlement services in Canberra.

"As our economy changes and demand for low-skill labour drops, it will only become harder for humanitarian migrants to secure work. We need to act now."

State governments around the country have established dedicated refugee employment programs. The NSW government has partnered with major companies such as Westpac, Woolworths, Telstra, Harvey Norman, AMP and Australia Post in the Refugee Employment Support Program to help 7,000 refugees into work in western Sydney and the Illawarra.

In Victoria, the Jobs Victoria Employment Network aims to assist disadvantaged jobseekers, including refugees and migrants, into jobs in targeted industries.

Malcolm Turnbull told the United Nations general assembly in September : "Australia is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world" with a "long experience of, and commitment to, settlement services to ensure our immigrants, especially refugees, become successfully integrated into our society".

But the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said during last year's election campaignthat refugees were a burden on the Australian economy. " For many people, they won't be, you know, numerate or literate in their own language, let alone English. These people would be taking Australian jobs, there's no question about that.

Related: Peter Dutton says 'illiterate' refugees would be 'taking Australian jobs'

"For many of them that would be unemployed, they would languish in unemployment queues and on Medicare and the rest of it so there would be huge cost and there's no sense in sugar-coating that, that's the scenario."

However, long-term, refugee resettlement has been found to be immensely beneficial to Australia, both socially and economically.

A 2011 report by South Australian professor Graham Hugo, commissioned by the immigration department, found "the overwhelming picture, when one takes the longer term perspective of changes over the working lifetime of humanitarian program [refugee settlement] entrants and their children, is one of considerable achievement and contribution".


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 27, 2017 Saturday 12:44 PM GMT 


How Ikea helped to change attitudes on helping refugees;
Refugee populations have long been reliant on charitable aid agencies, but could business investment make a more meaningful difference?


BYLINE: Rachel England


SECTION: WORLD POLITICS; Version:1


LENGTH: 1469 words


In November 2016,Ikea took a pioneering step in its already comprehensive sustainability programme. The furniture retailerdecided to open production centres near Jordanian refugee campsinAmmanwith the aim ofeventuallyproviding employment for 200,000 disadvantaged people in the area - refugees included, both inside the city and on its outskirts.

Where many brands and retailers count promotional activities and donations to those in conflict-stricken areas among their CSR efforts, Ikea's approach implements a more long-term, sustainable model of support.

But in doing this, the company has entirely turned on its head the traditional perception of refugee status. A statement released by the brand says that one of the main aims of the programme is "supporting Jordan's journey in integrating refugees with locals in the labour market through creating jobs". The objective, then, is not to simply maintain a temporary population, but to allow a growing community and the location in which it's based to thrive and flourish - a notion that briefly touched the headlines in 2015 when Kilian Kleinschmidt, a humanitarian aid expert, told

Dezeen 

, an architecture and design magazine, that governments need to view refugee camps as "the cities of tomorrow".

Read more

Ikea is planning to sell a line of rugs made by Syrian refugees

The quote was widely reported, most likely, Kleinschmidt himself notes, because it completely contradicts the "refugee narrative"to which the world has become accustomed.

"We need to get away from the idea that refugees are poor little things that need to be fed and pampered - they're capable human beings," says Kleinschmidt, who worked for 25 years for the UNand the UN High Commission for Refugees in various camps and operations worldwide. "The whole aid conversation is about victims, which is why so many Europeans think these people are a burden, and not in fact an opportunity for change or development."

Kleinschmidt applauds Ikea's Jordan initiative. "There are three billion people living in poverty, and they need jobs. It's great that a brand name as recognisable as Ikea is finally sending that signal."

Space age: inside an Ikea shelter unit(Jonas

Nyström

)

He points to an initiative called ReBootKamp (RBK) as another example of a refugee-focused programme that offers a meaningful hand up. RBK provides intensive IT training to Syrian refugees with the aim of turning them into high quality software engineers. There are no upfront costs or previous education requirements, women are especially encouraged to apply and all graduates are guaranteed employment upon completion of the 12-week course.

To be clear, this isn't a charitable programme, but rather one born of the age-old notion of supply and demand. Speaking to Wamda, an Middle Eastern entrepreneurial website, Hugh Bosely, the director of RBK, said securing backing for the programme was "an easy sell":"Silicon Valley stepped up to the plate and threw their whole weight behind us. We've had pledges to hire every programmer we can produce, that's how much demand there is for it."

And yet, Kleinschmidt says, there is a wariness about integrating refugee communities with technology:"Refugees are associated with poverty - the idea that you can connect them with something from the 21st century is an alien concept to many. Not only that, but again, the victim narrative would suggest doing so is exploitative in some way.

"I was visiting one of these coding classes, accompanied by some people from an NGO who felt it wasn't right for 'these poor people to be thrown into the capitalist IT industry'. How arrogant to think that these people need protection from capitalism - capitalism existed in their home countries before they were displaced, and capitalism is how jobs are created.

"We've been treating aid in the same way since the Second World War, but now the most helpful kind of aid would come in the form of attracting companies and establishing economic cycles in places they wouldn't happen organically."

In other words, helping people to help themselves, or in this context, giving them the freedom to help themselves. One area where this approach has seen great success is in Uganda's Bidi Bidi refugee camp. Uganda has an extraordinarily compassionate refugee policy, where refugees are free to work, travel and mix with the surrounding community, and families are given a plot of land on which to build a house - plus more for farming.

Instead of a temporary crisis centre, Bidi Bidi is becoming a thriving community where people will settle to make their home. The boundaries between the refugee settlement and the existing village are merging - the historical conception story of many an established European city - and the local economy is booming. In fact, a 2016 study by the University of California Davis and the UN World Food Programme found that "refugees' purchases benefit local and national economies, and economic benefits exceed the amount of donated aid". The presence of refugees is an economic boost, not a burden.

Officials from the Ikea Foundation and the UNrefugee agency tour a solar energy plant in the Azraq Refugee Camp, Jordan (Elena Boffetta/AP Photo)

There is, Kleinschmidt believes, a huge amount of untapped value in refugee populations:"There are many places in Europe that are like ghost towns because people have moved elsewhere - governments could put in a whole new population with opportunities to trade and work. Or at least welcome them into existing economies. There are 600,000 job vacancies in Germany: during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis it was the business associations pushing Merkel to allow new people in, people who would benefit from a new home while giving the country an economic boost. The model is win-win."

Such is the mutually-beneficial nature of this model that the World Bank Finance Development Forum hosts an annual conference to discuss investment opportunities in fragile markets. More than 100 partners and 600 participants come together to push forward the sustainable development agenda in a world affected by conflict and violence. But while there can be no doubt that there's an appetite from the business world to engage disadvantaged communities, bureaucratic challenges mean a lot of the potential will never come to fruition.

"Governments are afraid of normalising refugee environments," says Kleinschmidt. "They are traditionally seen as temporary measures, and as such they are created to be temporary. Camps are poorly planned and refugees struggle to get work permits - they are being held hostage by red tape and outdated thinking."

Josephine Liebl, a policy advisor at Oxfam, agrees. "There is an argument that keeping people in one space makes providing them with access to basic services and protection easier in an emergency situation. While this is true in many cases, it is not a valid justification for restricting the movement of refugees indefinitely, or refusing to explore more innovative ways to help refugees outside of camps."

However, she notes that these 'more innovative ways' are not without their challenges, and represent a stark contrast to traditional aid approaches.

Read more

Home Office ignores almost 1,600 offers to take in child refugees

Aid workers 'lucky to be alive' after Libyan warship stops rescue

Everything politicians tell you about young refugees is wrong

Ikea launches eclectic and affordable collection of hand-drawn posters

Ikea is giving every member of its staff £1,200

"The reasons behind investing to create refugee jobs are often murky, with a lot of unanswered questions: are retailers fuelling a race-to-the-bottom on labour rights by benefiting from lower wage work and weaker labour protections? Are they taking production away from better quality jobs? What is the wider impact of moving production centres? Are lower standard jobs being created?

"This Ikea initiative could be life changing for people if implemented in a way that promotes and protects labour rights, and potentially an example to follow for the private sector in Jordan and other parts of the world; that is why it is important to get it right."

But changing an entrenched approach to aid, and to those in receipt of it, will not happen overnight, and there may well be lessons learned along the way, says Kleinschmidt:"People want to work. They don't want to be pitied and dependent, which is why we are seeing more and more that the most meaningful aid is initiated by business that recognises the value of people, rather than charities that see victims.

"It's a very slow transformation but aid is gradually taking on a new identity. As more governments and aid agencies move away from old-fashioned approaches and business gets more involved, the whole landscape will look very different in 10 years' time."


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June 13, 2017 Tuesday


UN agency chief urges world to '
step up'
as refugee numbers outpace resettlement spots


LENGTH: 530 words


June 12, 2017

Against the backdrop of increasing refugee numbers around the globe, fuelled by crisis and insecurity, and an ever widening gap in places to resettle them, the top United Nations official dealing with refugee issues has called on governments to "step up" and deliver places for refugees in line with the commitments they have made.
 



"The fact is global resettlement needs today far outweigh the places made available by governments by a factor of 13 to one, despite more countries taking part in the programme and an increase in private sector and community involvement," said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, at the opening of the UN agency's annual resettlement consultations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Recalling the New York Declaration, adopted by the 193 UN Member States, in September last year save lives to protect rights and share responsibility on the global issue, Mr. Grandi added:

"The Declaration was a milestone in global solidarity with refugees and the mainly developing countries which host almost 9 in 10 of them. But true sharing of responsibility requires places for refugees in third countries on a scale in line with the needs."

"We need urgent action to get there," he underscored.

In the Declaration, and the annexed Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), governments committed - amongst other objectives - to work on increasing resettlement places and other legal pathways for admission of refugees on a scale that would match the annual resettlement needs identified by UNHCR.

According to estimates, close to 1.2 million refugees need resettling globally, but only 93,200 places in resettlement countries are expected to be available this year - 43 per cent fewer than in 2016.

Refugees in need of resettlement are those people identified by UNHCR as having particular problems in the countries where they have sought refuge because their life, liberty, safety, health or other fundamental rights are at risk.

Last year, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) submitted more than 162,500 refugees for resettlement - the highest number in 20 years - and more than 125,800 started new lives in third countries.

Also last year, the number of third countries offering resettlement grew to 37, with some European governments setting up programmes for the first time and Argentina and Brazil, amongst others, making new commitments to resettle Syrian refugees.

Similarly, to assist the new resettlement states, UNHCR and IOM launched a support mechanism with support from donors. Community and private sponsorship programmes also increased.

"Despite the rhetoric against refugees in some quarters we have also seen an outpouring of good will, with ordinary citizens sponsoring refugees to live in their countries, inviting them into their homes and helping them to find jobs," Mr. Grandi added, urging all partners to support ways to provide additional places for refugees.

"Resettlement places not only help those refugees who face extreme difficulty in their first country of asylum, but are an important gesture of solidarity with countries hosting large numbers of refugees," he said.


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The Guardian


January 30, 2017 Monday 5:11 PM GMT 


Evangelical Christian leaders: travel ban violates religious beliefs on refugees;
Some evangelical groups criticized executive order that privileges Christian refugees over Muslim ones, despite majority of followers voting for president


BYLINE: Lois Beckett


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1256 words


Evangelical leaders are asking Donald Trump to reconsider his refugee ban, joining other Christian groups in arguing that welcoming refugees is an essential part of their faith.

The leader of a prominent US evangelical aid group said Trump's move to give Christian refugees priority was wrong.

"We oppose any religions test that would place the suffering of one people over another," said Scott Arbeiter, president of World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Related: Trump travel ban: president defends order amid worldwide controversy - live

Other Christian leaders also came out strongly against the notion that the US should prioritize Christian refugees, which Trump said in an interview he wanted to do and which the executive order he signed on Friday couched in terms of preferring religious minorities from the seven Muslim-majority countries concerned. 

"We need to protect all our brothers and sisters of all faiths, including Muslims, who have lost family, home and country," Bishop Joe S Vásquez of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement on Friday.

Church World Service, an aid group organized by mainstream Protestant churches, "denounces the prioritization of Christian refugees over Muslim refugees", said Sarah Krause, a senior director at the group's refugee program.

"We are called on by our faith to love the stranger," she added. "To do anything other than that is in violation of our Christian principles."

Even the chief executive of Open Doors USA, a branch of an international organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, was critical.

"President Trump rightly recognizes the incredible rise in persecution of Christians," David Curry said in a statement. "However, cherry-picking one religion over another only exacerbates the already severe worldwide trend of religious persecution.

"We encourage a need-based approach that treats all faiths equally and works toward the comprehensive strengthening of religious freedom around the world."

More than other faith groups, white evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump. Eight in 10 cast a vote for him, according to exit poll data - support the president has touted proudly.

Last week, evangelicals praised Trump for reinstating the global gag rule that prevents US-funded aid groups from providing information about abortion. But some groups said the executive order halting refugee resettlement was unnecessary.

"The US refugee resettlement program's screening process is already extremely thorough," a group of evangelical leaders wrote in a letter on Sunday to Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence. "We believe that our nation can continue to be both compassionate and secure."

Related: A whirlwind week: Trump's first 14 official presidential actions

The leaders asked the president to resume the US refugee resettlement program "immediately".

The letter was signed by the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches; the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; the nation's largest Latino evangelical group; and the leaders of several major evangelical refugee and aid groups.

"It would be a mistake [to think that] because an evangelical voted for Donald Trump, they will support all of his positions," Arbeiter said.

Opposition to Trump's refugee ban is, however, not universal among evangelical Christians. The Rev Franklin Graham, son of the influential evangelist Billy Graham, defended the ban in a statement to the Guardian.

"I believe that all people coming from other countries need to be completely vetted," he said. "We need to be sure their philosophies related to freedom and liberty are in line with ours.

"Sharia law, for instance, is ultimately incompatible with the constitution of this nation. I support safe zones in the countries where refugees can flee and find protection. This is much safer than them trying to cross the sea, risking their lives. Let's take the help to them."

A survey conducted in September found that only one in five committed Christians reported they were regularly praying for Syrian refugees. 

Related: Fellow white evangelicals: your votes for Trump shook my faith | Sam Thielman

"It's disappointing to see America's heart closing to refugees," Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, the evangelical aid group that commissioned the study, said in a statement last month. "This is not the compassionate and generous nation I know we truly are. And it's shocking that Christians, who are held to a higher standard by our Lord, are praying even less for refugees."

Arbeiter said evangelicals who supported Trump's order probably did not understand how rigorously refugees to the US are vetted.

"Evangelicals, like many other groups, are a bit conflicted," he said. "On the one hand, they see the world as a dangerous place. Rightly so. And on the other hand, they know that the call of Jesus throughout our Christian history has been to do to others as we would have done to ourselves."

Americans watching news coverage of refugees from Syria and elsewhere streaming into Europe could easily feel overwhelmed, he said. "We would rightly say that's a security nightmare. How do you know who's in what boat?"

But the reality, Arbeiter said, is "no refugee can choose to come to America. They must be chosen."

Three million refugees have been admitted to the US since the resettlement program began in 1980, and over nearly 40 years "no American life has ever been lost in a terrorist act by a refugee", Arbeiter said.

The Cato Institute has estimated the risk of an American citizen being killed by a refugee to be 1 in 3.64bn. Trump's executive order, Arbeiter said, seemed like "an answer that's bigger than the questions".

"We are all for careful security," he said, "but we think that we have targeted the wrong group of people for these extraordinary measures."

Most of the nine major refugee resettlement organizations who work with the federal government are affiliated with faith groups. World Relief works with a thousand churches and tens of thousands of volunteers, Arbeiter said. Church World Service helped resettle about 10% of the nearly 90,000 refugees who came to the US last year.

Related: The Muslim ban has brought the US close to constitutional crisis | Trevor Timm

For the many Christian organizations working at the frontlines of the refugee crisis, Trump's executive order was a devastating blow.

"The executive order was signed during Holocaust remembrance week," said Krause, the senior director at Church World Service. "It was a time we had said, 'Never again,' and yet here we are."

In Kenya, a group of refugees working with Church World Service gave up shelter in a refugee camp and sold all their possessions in preparation for finally being admitted to the US, Krause said. Trump's order may mean they will be forced to go back to the camp with nothing, she said.

A majority of Protestants and white Catholics also supported Trump, according to early exit poll data analyzed by the Pew Research Center.

Arbeiter, the president of World Relief, said allowing refugees into the country was not a partisan issue: "For us, it is first a biblical issue, and then it's a human issue."

The group has organized a petition to galvanize support for refugees among churches, but it is not planning on holding any protests.

"We're trying to call people to pray and to contact their elected officials to make their views known," Arbeiter said.


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June 24, 2017 Saturday


Uganda pledges continued support to refugees


LENGTH: 577 words


Text of report in English headlined "Uganda won't tire from opening doors to refugees - Museveni" published by Ugandan privately-owned Chimp Reports news website on 23 June 

Uganda will not tire from opening its doors to the restless seeking humanitarian assistance despite the challenges this presents, President Yoweri Museveni said on Friday [23 June].

He told delegates at a Solidarity Summit on Refugees that the country's kindness to refugees dated many decades back and it was not about to change.

The Solidarity Summit, which was co-hosted by the president along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at Speke Resort in Munyonyo [on the northern shores of Lake Victoria], sought to mobilize up to two billion dollars that Uganda needs in the next one year to provide for refugees.

But Museveni sent a message of relief to the over 1.2 millions refugees currently in Uganda saying, "We have been dealing with refugees for millennia. Our culture knew how to deal with it using a dynamic but temporary approach."

"It's not that difficult to coexist with refugees because the entire of the African population is comprised of only four linguist groups," he added.

Having partly blamed the permanent nature of refuge which has in recent years become common, the president said that the spirit of Pan-African ideological orientation has enabled Africans to continue coexisting despite of borders drawn by colonialism.

"With the help of the international community, we shall manage like we have always done," he told about 500 delegates including heads of state, diplomats, development partners, ministers, and government officials.

President Museveni's NRM [National Resistance Movement] government has gained widespread international praise for its progressive policies on refugee protection and management. Unlike other countries, Uganda has established a model that allocates land to refugees, enabling them to sustain themselves by engaging in economic activities.

He used the summit to call on the international community to support the development of infrastructure for the communities hosting refugees as a way of rewarding their generosity.

"Host communities should also be rewarded especially in road infrastructure which are no longer enough to cope with the numbers. I know UNHCR doesn't have capacity but let's work together to lobby those who have money," Museveni said.

In Yumbe and Isingiro districts, where Nakivaale and Bidi Bidi refugee camps are situated, Museveni particularly pointed out the need to quickly upgrade the two murram roads of Moyo-Yumbe-Koboko and Kabingo-Rugaaga-Rakai to bitumen surface.

Earlier, the UN chief Antonio Guterres had appreciated Uganda's "exemplary refugee policy" that allows refugees to share schools, health centres with the locals and enabling them to live normal lives.

"Even today when they receive the largest refugee flow over the past years, Uganda remains a symbol of integrity of the refugees that unfortunately hasn't been respected anywhere else in the world," Guterres said.

Having noted some of the challenging impact that the refugee influx has caused to the Uganda government, the refugees themselves and the host communities, the secretary-general urged the international community to step up their support.

A total of 358.3m dollars was pledged at the same summit by different countries, individuals and organisations to assist finance Uganda's humanitarian needs.

Source: Chimp Reports in English 23 Jun 17


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The Guardian(London)


April 25, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM GMT 


Two-tier refugee system leaves many destitute and homeless, say MPs;
Cross-party group report finds support differs for refugees who come to UK via asylum route rather than resettlement


BYLINE: Alan Travis Home affairs editor


SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 760 words


A costly "two-tier system" of providing protection for refugees in Britain has developed, leaving many at risk of homelessness and destitution, according to a report from a cross-party group of MPs.

The study by the parliamentary group on refugees says the way the system is structured seriously damages the prospect of integrating new refugees and reports that the British Red Cross had to help more than 1,200 destitute refugees in just nine months last year.

The parliamentary panel that carried out the nine-month inquiry included David Burrowes, Thangam Debbonaire, Caroline Lucas, Lord Dubs and Sally Hamwee. Burrowes, the Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate and vice chair of the group, said: "For too many refugees, being granted their status is the beginning of a period characterised by homelessness and destitution. Protection must mean more than just a piece of paper." 

The MPs and peers identify as a key problem a 28-day cut-off period after which all state support, including housing, is withdrawn from newly recognised refugees once their status is confirmed.

The report says this "move-on" period, after which they are forced to leave their Home Office-provided accommodation, is too short and "leaves too many newly recognised refugees homeless and destitute".

It says that the risk of homelessness and destitution after being recognised as a refugee in Britain faces the majority whose claims have been recognised through the asylum process.

More than 50,290 people successfully applied for refugee status through the asylum route last year, compared with fewer than 10,000 who were resettled in Britain after being nominated by the UN high commissioner for refugees.

Related: Refugees applying to live in UK face being sent home after five years

The MPs' report, Refugees Welcome?, says that those who come to Britain through the resettlement route are provided accommodation and receive support to access services and find employment.

"For refugees who have gone through the asylum system, there is no such support," it says. "This was not always the case. Between 2008 and 2011, the government funded a programme to help newly recognised refugees navigate the move-on period, offering 12 months of support to access housing, education, social security and the job market. However, funding for the programme was ended in September 2011."

The MPs say that a two-tier system has developed for refugees in Britain as a result. They recommend that the 28-day move-on period is extended to at least 50 days, reflecting the time it takes to find accommodation and financial support.

The study highlights the experience of Anas, a Syrian refugee who was left unable to access jobseeker's support or secure accommodation after a Home Office spelling mistake on his official paperwork.

"Isis and Assad mean that it's no longer safe for me at home. When I arrived in Britain I was so thankful to have been offered safety," he said. "All I wanted was to be a good person and give back to the country which sheltered me, but I couldn't for no better reason than because my paperwork was wrong and it took five months to fix it. I will always be grateful to Britain, but I will never understand a system which stops people like me from getting on my feet and contributing to society."

His experience contrasted with that of Nour, who came on the Syrian refugee resettlement scheme. He received correct paperwork in a timely fashion, had access to English classes within weeks of arriving and received assistance in finding steady accommodation. He is now studying computer science at Birmingham University.

"When I arrived in Britain, I wanted a hand up, not a hand out, to get back on my own two feet, continue my work and studies and start supporting my family. I'm grateful to Britain for the support I received and I hope to have the opportunity to repay the country with my work. I want all refugees to have the same opportunity," he said.

Debbonaire, the Labour MP for Bristol West and chair of the group, said: "A refugee is a refugee, however they were granted status. Most will want to return home when conflict is over and, in the meantime, want to contribute to this country. These are often skilled professionals and, by definition, they all have strength and determination to offer.

"But there are administrative flaws in the system, which could be easily fixed. Creating a two-tier system for refugees, loading the dice against people who come here to build a new life, is not just the wrong thing to do, but a costly missed opportunity for Britain."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 28, 2017 Saturday 9:02 AM GMT 


Donald Trump refugee ban: UN condemns President's bar on asylum and entry from Muslim-majority countries;
Warning comes after President calls for Christian refugees to be given priority


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 866 words


The United Nations has condemned Donald Trump's ban on refugees and order to stop Syrians and travellers from six other Muslim-majority countries entering the US amid mounting international anger.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organisation for Migration called on the new President's administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, a right protected by international law.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement program is one of the most important in the world," the two agencies said in a joint statement. 

Donald Trump says General

Mattis

and him disagree on torture

"The longstanding US policy of welcoming refugees has created a win-win situation: it has saved the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have in turn enriched and strengthened their new societies."

The UN also cautioned Mr Trump against any move to give preferential status to particular nationalities or religions after his executive order called for minority religious groups to be fast-tracked.

Read more

Muslim leaders to file lawsuit against Donald Trump's refugee ban

Twitter account lists Jews who died after being refused US entry

Donald Trump signs executive order to ban refugees 

He announced his support for the prospect of Syrian Christians being given priority for asylum in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).

When asked if Christians would be given special status, he replied "yes", adding: "They've been horribly treated... everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians.

"And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them."

The UNHCR and IOM urged the new administration to continue its work with the UN and other agencies to ensure "vital" resettlement programmes for people fleeing conflict and persecution, whatever their background.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race," a spokesperson said.

"We will continue to engage actively and constructively with the US Government, as we have done for decades, to protect those who need it most."

Mr Trump has suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days as part of measures he claimed would "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

His wide-ranging executive orderadditionally banned Syrian refugees indefinitely until "significant changes" are made, and halved the annual cap on refugees to 50,000.

Read more

Most Isis victims Muslims despite Trump's plan for Christian refugees

The President's action alsosuspends travel visas for anyone from seven predominantly Muslim "countries of particular concern", including Syria and Iraq,from entering the US for at least 90 days.

He claimed his administration needed time to develop more stringent screening processes for refugees, immigrants and visitors.

It provoked outcry from NGOs working to stem the worst ever global refugee crisis, with more than 65 million people forced to flee their homes.

Amnesty International warned the move could have "catastrophic consequences", saying some of the worst fears about a Trump presidency were already being realised.

Salil Shetty, the group's secretary general, said: "These men, women and children are the victims of the same terror President Trump claims he wants to fight against. The irony beggars belief."

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Mr Trump's "harmful and hasty" decision would impact thousands of innocent people, mostly women and children, awaiting resettlement to the US.

New Yorkers demonstrate against Mr Trump's proposed immigration policies in December 2015 (Spencer Platt/

Getty

)

"In truth, refugees are fleeing terror - they are not terrorists," said IRC president and CEO David Miliband.

Help Refugees, a British charity working across camps in northern France, Greece and the Middle East, said news of Mr Trump's order was "devastating".

"Refugees are, by definition, people seeking sanctuary from some of the most horrific circumstances and it is the duty of compassionate and progressive nations to accept their fair share," a spokesperson said.

"Banning refugees on the basis of their religious beliefs is abhorrent."

It came months after global outcry over the Republican's campaign pledge to implement a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States".

Around 25,000 refugees were resettled in the US between October and the end of 2016 under the UNHCR's programme for the most vulnerable, the agency said.

According to the Pew Research Centre, the numbers of Muslim and Christian refugees from all countries entering the US were around the same last year: 37,521 Christian refugees entered the US during 2016, with 38,901 Muslim refugees entering in the same period.

Before being approved for resettlement by American authorities, refugees undergo an in-depth process that includes up to 36 months of vetting - including biometric screening - by 12 to 15 government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and intelligence services.


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MailOnline


February 14, 2017 Tuesday 9:02 PM GMT 


Small Canadian towns are now creaking under the weight of refugees crossing the border illegally from America


BYLINE: ASHLEY COLLMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 956 words



The United States used to be the gold standard for refugees setting out for a better life.  

But ever since President Trump took office, and started cracking down on immigration, fearful refugees and asylum seekers have started illegally crossing into Canada in hopes of trading their American dreams for maple leaves.

This has had a profound effect on the small Canadian towns situated near the U.S. border, which have seen refugees from Sudan, Turkey, Syria and other corners of the world show up cold and hungry from difficult border crossings in the dead of winter. 

Since the start of the New Year, 69 people have applied for refugee status in Canada after illegally crossing into the country from the U.S. 

The majority of these crossings have happened near Emerson, Canada - which shares a border with North Dakota and Minnesota - and the neighboring towns of Hemmingford and  Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle in Quebec, on the New York border. 

Some come with children, others with frostbite wounds sustained on the journey through snow-covered fields. 

The reason these wanna-be Canadians are crossing into the country illegally is because Canada is part of an agreement that bars refugees that have already arrived in another 'safe' country from trying to trade up to another country. 

This has put refugees and asylum seekers already in the U.S. in a tough position, since many of them have become fearful about what will happen to them if Trump's travel ban is reinstated, or he crafts an even tougher executive order. 

The only way for these refugees already in the U.S. to gain refugee status in Canada is for them to physically cross the border illegally. 

In fact, as soon as they arrive in the country, these refugees have been tracking down police officers to arrest them. 

While the adults may be briefly handcuffed, they are not detained and instead are taken to a police or border station where they can officially apply as refugees. 

But with 28 people crossing into Manitoba alone this weekend, locals are struggling to help these newcomers settle into Canadian life. 

Rita Chahal is the executive director of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, which has set up 'Welcome Place' to provide a temporary shelter for refugees coming over the U.S. border. Lately, Welcome Place's staff have been making up to three shuttles back and forth between the border a day, picking up refugees and bringing them back to the shelter where they can warm up, eat and get the help they need to start their immigration process.

As of Sunday, Welcome Place was completely full and Chahal had no alternate locations to place more refugees. She says her organization needs more donations to help with the influx of refugees and assistance from other agencies who can give them temporary shelter. 

'The numbers, if they keep growing, I don't have the financial resources to hire more staff,' she told CBC on Sunday. 

Residents in these small towns have been mostly open to the refugees flooding into their hometowns, but the influx was so drastic that in prompted an emergency town meeting in Emerson. 

Some are afraid that, as the weather warms, refugees will become come in even larger numbers. 

'I have seen them walking around town, more than a number of times, where I've seen five people coming across, walking down the highway, sleeping on the side of the highway,' Emerson Fire Chief Jeff French told CNN. 

Because they need to report to the authorities within three days of entering Canada, in order to claim refugee status, some have been banging on locals' doors to use the phone at 2 or 3am.  

'It started with a trickle and has now increased to a flood stage,' resident Brenda Piett said. 'Some people are scared, nervous. Locking their doors. This town most people never locked their doors. But recently they are.'

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that he was 'very concerned' with the amount of refugees crossing into rural areas. But he did not say whether he would seek to suspend their agreement with the U.S. and perhaps try start allowing these people to apply for refugee status at official borders.

The majority of these crossings have been happening on the New York-Quebec border, which authorities attribute to its closeness to the major East Coast cities. 

Some even take Ubers all the way up from New York City to the border so they can cross over. 

François Doré, a retired Sûreté du Québec officer, lives in Hemmingford and told the Montreal Gazette he has seen much more activity at the border lately, with more sensors being installed and police patrolling 24/7.

Janet Cunningham lives a few hundred feet from the border and says it's become common to see refugees crossing the snow-covered fields outside her house.

She recently spoke with an Eritrean man that she saw come over the border and helped direct him towards Montreal. But by the time he reached the corner, the police were already on the scene to arrest him. 

'I feel sorry for all these people who have to go to such extremes to get a better life,' she said. 'As long as they're not terrorists, they are welcome in this country.' 


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April 4, 2017 Tuesday


Rwanda and Congo discuss repatriation of 10,000 refugees


LENGTH: 700 words


Text of report in English by Emmanuel Ntirenganya entitled "Rwanda-Congo Brazzaville discuss refugee repatriation" published by Rwandan newspaper The New Times website on 4 April

Rwanda and the Republic of Congo are looking into ways to trigger mass voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees as the deadline for the implementation of the cessation clause draws nearer.

Speaking at a meeting in Kigali yesterday [3 April], the minister for disaster management and refugee affairs, Seraphine Mukantabana, said those who seek to return home are warmly welcome and the country is well-prepared to receive them with due care. 

According to the minister, there are about 10,000 Rwandan refugees in Congo Brazzaville.

The tripartite meeting between the Government of Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR), aimed to assess the progress of the implementation of the roadmap agreed upon in Congo in September, last year and draw the way forward.

The last meeting recommended a joint sensitisation campaign on two durable solutions namely; voluntary repatriation and local integration.

The sensitisation campaigns highlighted services offered to refugees who fled between 1959 and 1998 and are willing to return home.

Another option considered was how to support those who have particular reasons to remain in the host country to retain refugee status.

The UNCHR representative in Congo, Cyr Modeste Kouame, cited the need for dignified voluntary repatriation for Rwandan refugees, assuring that those who wish to remain with genuine reasons would be integrated.

Antoinette Dinga-Dzondo, the minister for social affairs, humanitarian action and solidarity of Congo Brazzaville, said that each party had done its part. So, what we came to do is to see where we have reached."

However, she explained that for each option, there are criteria and measures to take.

"That is what we are examining. Each Rwandan refugee has option to choose among the three solutions. We are not going to impose. Once one has chosen a given option, we examine whether they fulfil the criteria for them to opt for the voluntary repatriation, [local] reintegration,or the retention of the refugee status," she said.

Minister Mukantabana said several channels were set up to disseminate information on the available options through churches, civil society and youth forums so that no Rwandan refugee claims not to have got information.

She said that Rwanda has already prepared Nyarushishi camp in Rusizi District [western Rwanda] to receive the returnees.

Upon arrival in Rwanda, the returnees will get a lump sum of 250 dollars per an adult person to support their welfare. This means that a family with 10 adults will get 2,500 dollars, which the minister said can help them start a profitable business. Previously, a returnee would get 150 dollars. "What we prioritise in this country is jobs that are not based on agriculture," she said.

The UNHCR Representative to Rwanda, Azam Saber, said that nearly 5,600, Rwandan refugees in Congo were born in exile.

He added that over 4,000 refugees are attending school, which illustrates the relatively young age of the refugee population in Congo. "We would like to encourage more Rwandan refugees living abroad to return home because Rwanda is safe and because the Government of the Republic of Rwanda is welcoming them," he noted.

On 30 June 2013, UNHCR recommended the cessation of refugee status for Rwandan refugees bringing to proper closure the situation of Rwandan refugees who fled their country before 31 December, 1998.

Countries of asylum and UNHCR agreed on a differentiated approach to cessation during a ministerial meeting held on 18 April 2013 in Pretoria.

Two additional ministerial meetings were subsequently organised in Geneva in October 2015 and September 2016, confirming the commitment of concerned states to 31 December 2017 effectively enforce the cessation clause.

About 3.5 million Rwandans who had fled to different countries have since returned home and many more continue to return, according to information from the Ministry for Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs.

Source: The New Times website, Kigali, in English 4 Apr 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


June 20, 2017 Tuesday 1:19 PM GMT 


Refugee campaigners launch legal challenge over Home Office 'failure' to implement Dubs scheme;
Help Refugees accuse Governmentof adopting 'seriously defective'process of measuringlocal councils' capacity to take in child refugees


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 976 words


Campaigners have launched a High Court challenge against the Government over the number of unaccompanied child refugees accepted into the UK under the Dubs scheme.

The Help Refugees charity, which is leading the case, accuses the Home Office of adopting a "seriously defective" process to measure the capacity of local councils to take in child refugees, after it emerged many local authorities were not properly consulted.

TheGovernment announced in early February that it was to close the Dubs scheme - intended to grant 3,000 vulnerable unaccompanied minors a safe passage to Britain - after accepting just 350. 

It lateradmitted that an "administrative error" led to 130 places for child refugees offered by local councils not being taken into consideration.

Read more

Home Office ignores almost 1,600 offers to take in child refugees

Tens of thousands of child refugees 'at risk of psychosocial distress'

Britain 'could have taken 1,300 more child refugees, not just 130'

It has since emerged that the Home Office reportedly ignored almost 1,600 offers from councils to take in asylum-seeking children.

Freedom of Information requests submitted by

Vice magazine

showed that in total, councils had voluntarily offered to accept 1,572 more children than they were currently supporting.

Help Refugees is now asking the court to order the Secretary of State to consult local authorities again, urging that the Government reopen the Dubs Scheme.

Lord Alf Dubs and actress and activist Juliet Stevenson were among politicians and other supporters at a "Choose Love" demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London as the challenge got under way on Tuesday morning.

During the hearing, legal experts acting on behalf of Help Refugees will accuse the Home Office of carrying out a "consultation by stealth", by failing to provide the local authorities with critical information such as the fact that there was a 14 October 2016 cut-off date for responses.

It will state that the Home Office initiated but abandoned a consultation in Northern Ireland and failed to count 91 per cent of the places offered by Scottish local authorities because they were sent after the "cut-off" date.

Read more

Britain 'could have taken 1,300 more child refugees, not just 130'

At least 86 per cent of the places offered by Welsh local authorities, sent soon after the consultation period ended, were reportedly also not counted towards the specified number.

And at least 45 per cent of places offered in England were discounted for the same reason.

Since the scheme was ended, multiple councils have come forward to offer spaces for child refugees left destitute or living in camps across Europe.

Help Refugees is confident that if the consultation process is carried out properly, the number of children who can come to the UK will increase.

The court case will also challenge the Government's alleged failure to implement its expressly urgent statutory duty quickly enough, after it waited until 8 February 2017 to announce the "specified number" of children it intended to relocate, including a period of two months spent exclusively on developing a "communications strategy".

Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, also known as the Dubs Amendment, requires the Government to make arrangements "as soon as possible" after the passing of the Immigration Act 2016 to relocate and support unaccompanied refugee children from Europe.

Further, the case will state that there was a lack of fundamental procedural safeguards for unaccompanied refugee children who receive adverse decisions about their eligibility for relocation, after many unaccompanied minors in France were told they had not been accepted with no written reasons or explanation, and no formal mechanism to challenge refusals.

Read more

Child refugees in northern France 'facing exploitation on daily basis'

There are currently 95,000 unaccompanied refugee children living in Europe, many of whom have sufferedappalling abuse.

Speaking ahead of the court case, Lord Alf Dubs, a former child refugee and the original sponsor of the Dubs Amendment, accused the Government of putting refugee children's lives at risk.

"I believe the Government's inadequate consultation to calculate local authority capacity, the woefully low number that the Government has set and the appallingly slow pace of relocations are all indicative of a level of incompetence in the current government that's verging on deep cynicism," Lord Dubs said.

"The Government's foot-dragging is putting refugee children's lives at risk. That is why this legal challenge is so very important. What these children need is a helping hand, similar to the one Britain lent me when I was a boy. I wasn't left alone to live in camps or on the streets of Europe. I was saved by Britain and its people."

Juliet Stevenson, human rights activist and award-winning actress, urged that the refugees in question were "children and not statistics", saying: "The focus in this incredibly important case might be on numbers, but these children are not statistics. They are desperately needy children. What happens with the Dubs Amendment is a test of our shared humanity.

"Are we going to turn our back on the children who are alone and most vulnerable, or do we choose to act with compassion and love, and offer a safe home and future to children we have the capacity to help?"

Help Refugees CEOJosie Naughtonsaid: "We're taking this action because lone refugee children in Europe are sleeping in woods, on streets and in acutely under-equipped refugee camps in danger of the worst kinds of abuses.

"In May 2016, a law was put in place to help protect these children, but for over a year Amber Rudd and the Home Office have put children's safety at risk by failing to uphold it. There are hundreds more local authority spaces available for these children and the Home Office knows it."


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The National (Scotland)


February 10, 2017 Friday


Kenyan court rules that 200,000 at world's largest refugee camp will not be sent back to Somalia


BYLINE: George Gaynor


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 610 words


A KENYAN court has ruled that the government must not close the world's largest refugee camp and send more than 200,000 people back to war-torn Somalia.

The decision eases pressure on Somalis who feared the camp would close by the end of May.

Kenya's internal security minister abused his power by ordering the closure of Dadaab camp, Judge John Mativo said, adding that the minister and other officials had "acted in excess and in abuse of their power, in violation of the rule of law and in contravention of their oaths of office". 

Rights groups Amnesty International, Kituo cha Sheria and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights had challenged the government's order to close the camp.

Kenya's government quickly said it will appeal against the ruling.

The judge called the order discriminatory, saying it goes against the Kenyan constitution as well as international treaties that protect refugees against being returned to a conflict zone.

President Uhuru Kenyatta's government has not proved Somalia is safe for the refugees to return, the judge said, also calling the orders to shut down the government's refugee department "null and void".

Somalia remains under threat of attacks from homegrown extremist group al-Shabab.

Some Kenyan officials have argued that the sprawling refugee camp near the border with Somalia has been used as a recruiting ground for al-Shabab and a base for launching attacks inside Kenya.

But Kenyan officials have not provided conclusive proof of that.

US President Donald Trump's temporary ban on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries, including Somalia, had put added pressure on the Dadaab refugees.

Last weekend, about 140 of the Somali refugees who had been on the brink of resettling in the United States were sent back to Dadaab instead.

Said Abuka, a community leader in Nairobi and a refugee for 22 years, said the court ruling would help the Somali refugees.

Newborn babies could not be registered as refugees because of the shutdown of Kenya's refugee department, he said.

"After months of anxiety because of the camp closure deadline hanging over their heads, increasingly restricted asylum options and the recent US administration suspension of refugee resettlement, the court's judgment offers Somali refugees a hope that they may still have a choice other than returning to insecure and drought-ridden Somalia," said Laetitia Bader, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Amnesty International welcomed the ruling, saying it affirmed Kenya's legal obligation to protect people who seek safety from harm and persecution.

"Today is a historic day for more than a quarter of a million refugees who were at risk of being forcefully returned to Somalia, where they would have been at serious risk of human rights abuses," the rights group's Muthoni Wanyeki said in a statement.

Territory control map of Somalia, also showing Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya Somalia's UN-backed government, with the help of a 22,000-strong African Union force, is battling Islamist group al-Shabab to regain control of the country.

But it has only managed to secure major towns.

The militants, who impose a strict version of Islam in the areas they control, still mount bombings and have carried out a series of attacks in neighbouring Kenya.

Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks on Kenya, which sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants. The attacks include the September 2013 attack on the Westgate mall that killed 67 people and the 2015 attack on Garissa University that killed 148 people, mostly students.

Kenya is currently building a fence along its 700km (435-mile) border with Somalia, but has completed only 4km so far.


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The Guardian(London)


February 28, 2017 Tuesday 7:15 AM GMT 


Refugees turned entrepreneurs: 'I needed to think about the future';
Founders who escaped war in their home countries describe their routes to enterprise, each requiring a healthy dose of hard work and perseverance


BYLINE: Suzanne Bearne


SECTION: GUARDIAN SMALL BUSINESS NETWORK; Version:1


LENGTH: 1256 words


It was nearly five years ago when Razan Alsous fled Syria with her husband and three children and arrived in Huddersfield with all their belongings squeezed into one suitcase. Ambitious and determined to carve out a new, and better, life, Alsous sought to find a job. But despite her scientific background and pharmacy degree, it was a massive battle; companies demanded references and a history of working in the UK that she simply didn't have.

At the same time, Alsous was starting to make her own halloumi from scratch using local milk. "We used to eat halloumi on a daily basis but here it wasn't as good as it used to be back home," she says. Searching both in English and Arabic online, her microbiology background enabled Alsous to grasp the basics of making the cheese. Enthused by the outcome, she realised that there was a gap in the market for a new style of tasty halloumi.

Securing a startup loan of £2,500 from the Local Enterprise Agency, Alsous set up Yorkshire Dama Cheese in 2014, showcasing the brand at trade shows and food festivals. "In Syria, I used to be active, I never sat down," says Alsous. "When I arrived here, instead of focusing on what we had lost, I needed to think about the future." 

Now a five-strong team, Yorkshire Dama Cheese is sold in farm shops and delis nationwide. And there's no sitting still for Alsous - she's currently in talks with a supermarket to stock her brand and is working on a move to a new factory. "We'll have a window where people can watch it being made and buy it."

Alsous and her family are among more than 117,000 refugees thought to be living in the UK, many of whom have fled countries due to war or human rights abuses (a refugee, by definition, has proven that they would be at risk if returned to their home country). Like Alsous, many are working hard to adapt to the circumstances they find themselves in. But they face serious challenges.

"Around the world, refugees face significant restrictions on their economic lives," says Alexander Betts, professor of forced migration and international affairs, and director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University.

"Most of the world's refugees are not allowed to work. For those that are, there are other challenges: language, non-recognition of foreign qualifications, discrimination all pose barriers to finding a job. Refugees also face additional challenges in registering businesses and accessing banking facilities. But in spite of this, many refugees do set up small businesses, sometimes in the informal sector [self-employment]."

Edin Basic, co-founder of gourmet pizza company Firezza, was studying civil engineering in Bosnia when civil war broke out and he was forced to leave in 1992. He arrived in London not speaking a word of English. "That was the hardest challenge at first, along with the lack of money, as I had no help from my parents or other relatives," he says. He worked in restaurant kitchens, learning how to cook pasta and pizza, and worked his way up as an area manager for Caffè Uno and later, Starbucks. "Every step of the way was a challenge, but I am kind of grateful of that. The struggle made me who I am. Being busy meant I didn't have time to think too much about what had happened."

It was his time spent working in restaurants that sparked the idea for good quality pizzas. Faced with a lack of savings, along with business partner, fellow Bosnian refugee Adnan Medjedovic, Basic called in favours from contacts. "We were lucky to have friends including an architect, builder and graphic designer who helped us to develop the site and create a brand for Firezza. We also had an investor who saw the potential of what we were doing." After opening its Wandsworth site in the early 2000s, Firezza received a £250,000 investment from private equity business YFM.

Success ensued and the duo sold the company, which now has 24 locations, to Pizza Express last year for an undisclosed sum.

Betts describes refugees as natural entrepreneurs. "For any migrant, it takes a certain amount of enterprise to be able to leave your home and travel to a new country. But for refugees there is the additional need to adapt: when people are forced to flee they have to adapt - to new social networks, new markets, and new regulation. As the old adage suggests, 'necessity is the mother of invention'."

Robert Rajeswaran, chief executive of coding bootcamp GoCode, was forced to leave Jaffna, Sri Lanka with his family when he was a child.It took around two years of his family living as refugees before they were granted asylum in the UK.

He says the whole experience of being a refugee gave him the hunger to make his business work. "There was standoffish behaviour towards refugees and immigrants in parts of society [...] This gave me a drive to succeed and prove that a refugee too can make it in this country through sheer hard work and perseverance."

To help refugees in self-employment and setting up their own company in the UK, Charlie Fraser co-founded The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN). "Many refugees have been successful entrepreneurs," says Fraser. "But when they arrive, refugees are often put in areas where there is a labour surplus, and it can take a long time accessing finance because they have no credit history."

Refugees are forced to take jobs at much lower skill levels than they previously held, he says. To help empower refugees, TERN runs regular programmes offering access to business mentoring and expert advice.

The programmes run for 12 weeks with the targets set by the refugees taking part in them. The common aim is to identify key challenges facing their businesses, or business idea, such as market research, business planning, customer engagement, and work towards overcoming these such that they become financially viable by the end of the programme (upon which they can access finance through TERN's lending network).

During the programme, participants meet with their mentors for one to two hours once a week. While there is no obligation for mentors to keep up with mentees following the programme, Fraser says frequently mentors check-in with mentees afterwards.

"We want to make sure they are no longer marginalised," Fraser says. An example of a former participant on a three-month TERN programme is a former engineer from Syria who is setting up a software company that creates tools for verifying images on media sites. "He was matched with a mentor from a tech venture capital firm who advised him on marketing material for his new business," says Fraser.

Despite the growing awareness of refugee entrepreneurship, with initiatives like Techfugees organising hackathons and connecting refugees to entrepreneurs and networks like TERN, Betts says the government needs to do more to create an auspicious environment for budding business owners. "Startup capital, funding for business education, regulating against discrimination by banks, and supporting business incubators, for instance, could all help refugees to better help themselves."

But for many refugees, there's an ingrained fear that motivates them to succeed. "You have to work hard to survive when you find yourself in another country with no one to depend on but yourself," says Basic. "Failure is not an option."

Sign up to become a member of the Guardian Small Business Network here for more advice, insight and best practice direct to your inbox.


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MailOnline


January 17, 2017 Tuesday 3:26 AM GMT 


'It will become a ghetto': Plan to place half of all Syrian and Iraqi refugees in just one Sydney suburb slammed as it is claimed they 'won't assimilate'


BYLINE: PETER DEVLIN and STEPHEN JOHNSON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 672 words



Media commentator Prue MacSween has slammed the government's plan to house over 6,000 Syrian refugees within one Sydney council, saying the area will turn into a 'ghetto.' 

More than half of Australia's intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees will be settled in Fairfield, in Sydney's southwest within 12 months, prompting the community to call for support from the federal government.

'I'm not convinced the government should dump large numbers of refugees on a community without strong consideration,' Ms MacSween told Daily Mail Australia.

Scroll down for video 

'The last thing anybody wants is for a ghetto to be created.'

Cabramatta, which is within Fairfield City Council, became the heroin capital of Australia during the 1990s, as the children of Vietnamese refugees turned to crime.

'We've already seen it in Cabramatta with Asian refugees. Cabramatta became the drug capital of Australia,' Ms MacSween said.

'Also in Auburn and Punchbowl where concentrations of Muslims were creating all sorts of havoc. People didn't feel safe.'

Ms MacSween believes the intake should be spread out so refugees can 'properly assimilate.'

'I don't believe putting them (refugees) in one area and creating virtual refugee camps in the suburbs will help them assimilate and become contributing Australians,' the former journalist said.

The area is home to more than 200,000 people, mainly from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Iraqi-born residents make up more than a third of the recent arrivals, which is more than 10 times the Sydney average of three per cent.

They are even more numerous than the Vietnamese, who make up about a quarter of Fairfield City Council's new residents.

The council, which last year settled 3000 humanitarian arrivals from Syria and Iraq, has been told it will be doing so again in 2017, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

That means it will be settling 6,000 refugees, or half of the 12,000 Syrians and Iraqis coming to Australia to escape war and Islamic State terrorism.

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils said local governments needed more information on refugees coming to the area.

'In the past, councils have received very limited information on incoming refugees,' the group's president Stephen Bali told Fairfax Media.

Fairfield has settled 75 per cent of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees moving to western Sydney.

The area already has an unemployment rate of 9.1 per cent, which is significantly higher than the national average of 5.6 per cent.

Fairfield City Council was home to 4,312 recently-arrived migrants from Iraq in the 2011 Census but their numbers are expected to grow when data from the 2016 Census is released.

There were only 204 recent arrivals from Syria but those numbers are likely to multiple.

The area, more than 30 kilometres from central Sydney, is considered to contain some of the world's most ethnically-diverse suburbs.

It's also had its fair share of crime.

Former councillor Phuong Ngo, a Vietnamese refugee, is serving a life sentence for ordering the killing of New South Wales Labor MP John Newman in 1994, which was considered to be Australia's first political assassination.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last year insisted the Australian government had done extensive background checks on the Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to Australia.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott announced in September 2015 that Australia would take 12,000 humanitarian refugees from Syria and Iraq, shortly before Malcolm Turnbull took his job.

Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs Zed Seselja confirmed locations had been chosen across Australia to settle the Syrian and Iraqi refugees.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 18, 2017 Wednesday 5:52 PM GMT 


Rohingya refugees can finally leave the shadows;
Throughout Southeast Asia, persecutedrefugees from Burmaare trying to find a way out of oppression


BYLINE: Preeti Jha


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 1665 words


Arif carefully sprinkles tobacco onto betel leaves at a tea shop popular with fellow Rohingya refugees from Burma. Like tens of thousands before him he risked a treacherous journey by sea, at the mercy of smugglers, to seek sanctuary in Malaysia. The 27-year-old escaped the oppression still ravaging the Muslim minority in his homeland. But now he is one of a vast, unwanted diaspora scraping a precarious living in the shadows of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital.

The stateless Rohingya, often called the world's most persecuted minority, have long flocked to Muslim-majority Malaysia in misguided hopes of a warmer welcome. In Burma, they are regularly persecuted by the Buddhist majority, denied citizenship, forced to face apartheid-like restrictions on movement, and stigmatised as "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh despite their deep roots in the country. But the reality for some 55,000 Rohingya refugees registered with the UN in Malaysia alone, and for tens of thousands more believed to be in the country without the stamp of official recognition, is a state of limbo.

Read more 

Our responsibility for refugees should not be forgotten

"People here don't oppress us. We have no problem with locals. But if the police come, we have to run," says Arif (not his real name), pausing from folding small parcels of betel leaves, a stimulant widely chewed in Burma and other parts of Asia.

Like most Southeast Asian nations, Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, although it has allowed the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) to register refugees on the basis that most will be resettled elsewhere. While registered refugees are not held in camps, they are left to live in urban environments without crucial legal protections. Denied residency or work rights and given little aid, they take on low-paying jobs in unregulated sectors, living in constant fear of arrest, abuse, or extortion. Those with the coveted refugee status then wait for the creakingly slow process of resettlement to a third country.

Thousands of refugees have fled into China due to fighting in northern Burma(

Getty

)

But now, after years of stalled talks, the government is working on a potentially game-changing pilot plan long advocated by the UNHCR-granting 300 Rohingya legal permits to work in the plantation and manufacturing sectors for a three-year period, starting early this year.

At the agency's hub in Kuala Lumpur, Richard Towle, the UNHCR representative in Malaysia, says the plan is a "win-win" situation if everybody works together. "We know that the refugees want to work. Most of them are working. And industries and business would really like to engage with them. What's missing is the lawfulness of it," he said.

Read more

Trump listed as threat to human rights by watchdog

Towle adds that the work permits will offer vital protections for refugees who are vulnerable to exploitation in a "largely invisible economy," as well as grant Malaysia, which has long relied on foreign labour for low-skilled jobs, an "affordable workforce."

"If this is a success and all parties are comfortable with it, we would like to see all UNHCR refugees have the right to work," he said.

The plan comes at a time when new ideas on how to tackle the global refugee crisis are desperately needed. It's not just that more people are displaced than ever before -it's that fewer countries are willing to receive them as official residents.

Shifting geopolitics are especially worrisome for Malaysia, which has long been on the receiving end of regional refugees. Malaysia was a beneficiary of one of the largest UNHCR resettlement programmes in the past decade, when more than 100,000 refugees who arrived there were resettled to other countries, most of them going to the US. But the majority of those refugees came from Burma's Christian Chin minority, victims of the long-running clashes between ethnic militias and the government rather than the Rohingya, who form the bulk of Malaysia's refugees. Now, the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has voiced strong opposition to refugees and Muslims in recent months, plunges future Rohingya resettlement into deeper uncertainty.

That's why rights advocates emphasise finding the best ways to help refugees caught in limbo, harnessing the contributions they already make to the societies that have become their de facto homes. Amy Smith, executive director of the Southeast Asia-focused advocacy group Fortify Rights, hopes Malaysia's new work plan will take off and inspire others. "This is definitely a step in the right direction for Malaysia. More countries in the region need to think of strategies to integrate refugees into their population," she said.

A refugee from Burma rests in a temporary shelter in Wanding, in China's southwest Yunnan province(

Getty

)

But as full details of the pilot are yet to be disclosed, Smith voiced concerns about refugees entering a labour rights landscape in Malaysia that is "very exploitative for migrant workers." Any new plans should offerprotections such as the ability to change employers and report workplace abuse, she said.

Other experts have questioned the scope of the pilot, which is open to only a tiny fraction of Malaysia's UN-registered Rohingya refugees.

"I'm not sure it's sufficient to tease out the real benefits" of a work plan, said Caitlin Wake of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a London think tank.

"It will have little to no impact for the vast majority of refugees for that time. In a context like Malaysia, this is a very small step," said Wake, the author of two recent reports exploring the working lives of Rohingya in Malaysia.

She also cautioned against expecting too much from work plans. "Globally we're seeing more progress on refugees'labour rights. But while work permits have been lauded by policymakers, the response from refugees themselves has been more tepid. For example, in Jordan, conditions associated with obtaining and having a work permit can be a disincentive."

Rohingya

children attend a class at a school inside the Kutupalang Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh (Reuters)

In the Malaysian pilot, the limited sectors where refugees can work has also been one of the barriers in finding candidates. The UNHCR said several Rohingya refugees turned down the opportunity, preferring to work informally in less stable but sometimes better-paid industries such as construction. The agency hopes that a future expanded plan would open more sectors to refugees.

In a small grocery store on the eastern outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, long-standing Rohingya refugees, some of whom have lived in the capital for nearly three decades, stock up on Burmesestaples.

Ijaz (not his real name), who runs a cafe, arrived in Malaysia 24 years ago. The 43-year-old fled Rakhine, the westernmost Burma state that is home to most of the country's estimated onemillion Rohingya, to escape detention by intelligence officials he said were arbitrarily arresting young Muslims.

Though well-established by refugee standards, he locks up his shop and hides when police patrol the neighbourhood, saying he is often forced to pay bribes.

Failed government promises on previous labour plans mean Ijaz isn't confident about the latest drive. "They say something today, another thing tomorrow," he says. "But at least here we feel safe. We can sleep in peace."

A 2006 plan to issue 10,000 temporary work permits ceased within days over corruption claims, while an older plan granting some Rohingya six-month work permits in the early 1990s was never renewed, says Wake's ODI report published in November.

But there has been added impetus to this new initiative. Progress on the UNHCR plan has accelerated after a fresh wave of violence erupted in Rakhine in October 2016. Deadly attacks on police posts, which Burma blames on local militants, have prompted an intense army crackdown, with dozens of Rohingya killed and at least 65,000 fleeing to Bangladesh in the last few months, according to the UN. It's the worst unrest in Rakhine since 2012 clashes between Burma's Buddhist majority and the Rohingya.

A Burmese

Rohingya

girl reads theQuran at a refugee camp in Teknaf of southern Cox's Bazar district (

Getty

)

In November, a UN official said Burma sought the "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya from its territory, an accusation the government led by the once-imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi has strongly denied. In December, in a rare break from traditional regional diplomacy, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak added his own strongly worded statements while attending a Kuala Lumpur protest.

"The world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place," Najib said to a cheering crowd of Muslims, including Rohingya refugees. "What's the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel Prize?"

Najib's motives have been questioned at home. Critics accuse him of courting Malaysia's Muslim vote before the general elections, while ignoring the plight of Rohingya refugees on Malaysian soil. But the narrative of Muslim solidarity is running strong and helping to drive the pilot plan forward.

At the office of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia, a community group that helps the stateless minority, its president, Bo Min Naing, also known as Faisal, cautiously welcomes the plan. "It's a good thing, but I'm worried about the long term. Our status will continue as refugees, so nothing will change. We need to think about resettlement or citizenship," he said.

The message from the Malaysian government has nuances beyond the bold show of support from Najib.

"The aim is to give them the chance to work and earn a living, but at the same time we don't want to encourage more people to come here," said Nur Jazlan Mohamed, deputy minister of home affairs. He added that the pilot "may" be expanded, but only to "people already here."

"The long-term goal is to send them back. When Burma gives them the guarantee of safety and security, they can go back. This only gives a band-aid solution."

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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 26, 2017 Friday 10:35 PM GMT 


Calais: 'Dogs are allowed in cars here, but refugees are not';
It has been eight months since more than 8,000 refugees were forced out of the Calais Jungle by French authorities last year - but many are still living there, only in far worse conditions


BYLINE: Emily Goddard


SECTION: LONG READS; Version:1


LENGTH: 2674 words


Just over six months ago, Mangash was forced to look on through the chaos as the place he had called home for the past two years, the Jungle refugee camp in Calais, was violently razed to the ground by bulldozers and explosive fire. The 33-year-old, who is Pashtun and from Pakistan, has been in Europe for seven years but came to Calais on his planned journey to the UK as a refugee fleeing fierce conflict. He admits that conditions in the Jungle were never perfect but he now sleeps with only a blanket - no tent - wherever he can, in spots that are concealed enough to get some rest before the police come to forcefully move him on. He now says he is ready to go back to Pakistan if he cannot make it to the UK because he cannot withstand the conditions in Calais any longer.

"It was bad in the Jungle but now it is much worse," he tells

The Independent 

. "There is no help. It would be better if I go to Pakistan. There is more danger in France with the police. I sleep in the forest with a small blanket then the police come to get me out. They come anytime, sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes night. We just have to get up and go. People look at us like animals. We're treated worse than dogs. Dogs are allowed in cars here, but refugees not. We're here because of Western intervention yet people think we are bad. I'm here receiving shoes from other countries, the same countries that started wars in my home."

Mangash is just one of the more than 8,000 refugees who were evacuated from the Jungle when it was closed by French authorities in October last year. While some entered state-run accommodation centres across the country, a large number of displaced people, including hundreds of unaccompanied children, sleep rough without tents in nearby woods or behind huge mounds of rocks in a quarry-type part of an industrial estate. It is widely accepted that the situation is wholly unsustainable among both charities and refugees, but many destitute refugees feel that this is their only option if they want to make the journey to the UK, where they believe they will be able to live a better life.

Many refugees are fearful of the local police (Emily

Goddard

)

The threat of police brutality in Calais is palpable - there are multiple reports of beatings and the uninhibited use of tear gas, as is the risk of compromised health, exploitation, abuse and violence. Ill health, in particular, is a sizeable problem. More than 55 per cent of respondents to the latest Refugee Rights Data Project study, which was published last month, said they had experienced a health concern while in the Calais area, and only 50 per cent of those said they had received medical help. Almost half also believe their health issue was the result of violence or exposure to tear gas. One 23-year-old Sudanese man was left permanently blind in his left eye after waiting for five weeks for treatment to have a glass splinter removed from his eye following an attack with bottles by a group of local citizens.

Read more

Child refugee dies of heart attack in French accommodation centre

Other health complaints have been caused by the poor and unsanitary living conditions. A report released by Care4Calais last month highlighted that scabies, fungal infections and gum infections are at an all time high. Thomas Chambon, a volunteer with French refugee charity Utopia56, says a shortage of suitable footwear and wet weather has further exacerbated the situation in recent months. "There are big skin problems," he says. "They have wet feet for weeks and they walk so much every day. Their feet are very, very, very bad and they have mushrooms, fungus and infections. The skin problems also spread easily so it is a growing problem."

Young families are among the destitute refugees in Calais and Dunkirk (Emily

Goddard

)

Beyond the physical disorders, the impact of the crisis is increasingly taking its toll psychologically. This is becoming especially apparent in the numerous, already vulnerable, unaccompanied children desperate to get to the UK. The Refugee Youth Service (RYS) says poor communication and misinformation surrounding the complex family reunification procedures and registration for the Dublin III process causes refugee children's hopes to be "raised and dashed almost instantaneously". The effects have been devastating and the organisation has been providing continued support for minors. It regularly receives calls from children in distress and images of self-harm. The most recent case of self-harm resulted in an ambulance being called for a 17-year-old refugee, who received hospital treatment for his injuries.

"This case of cutting was particularly violent," explains Sabriya Guivy, a legal worker for the RYS, "but it was not the first kid I have seen like this. The travel, the living, it is hard and even when they have legal routes [to the UK] things are not happening soon enough. They feel like they don't have a solution. It is traumatic too seeing your home [the camp] being burned down. That has not helped anything."

The refugees' utter desperation is also extremely obvious in the way they try to find means to travel to the UK. Near to where refugees sleep in the woods, a passing lorry suddenly stops and the driver gets out to inspect the underside of his truck. He opens the back and pulls four teenage refugees from inside. "Immigrants!" the driver yells, gesticulating frantically. The refugees walk off, defeated. It is apparent that this is not the first time they have failed to hide in a lorry that is possibly headed for the border. Further down the same road, another driver is putting fuel in his lorry. Walking past, five teenagers become visible at the rear of the vehicle. They can be seen trying to get in the back.

There is a still a large refugee population in Dunkirk - most sleep rough in the woods - after a fire devastated the

Grande-Synthe

camp last month (Emily

Goddard

)

The UK said last month that it will take in an extra 130 unaccompanied refugee children from Europe after it admitted an "administrative error" caused some of the places being offered by local councils not to be considered as part of the Dubs Amendment scheme. The issue attracted widespread criticism but a statement from Robert Goodwill, the immigration minister, insisted "no eligible child has been refused transfer to the UK as a result of this error". He added: "The Government remains fully committed to the implementation of our commitment under section 67 [of the Immigration Act 2016 also known as the Dubs amendment] to transfer unaccompanied children to the UK from Europe."

However, the situation is getting progressively worse for all refugees, particularly since the catastrophic fire that last month overwhelmed the Grande-Synthe camp, France's first ever internationally recognised refugee shelter that housed 1,500 people near Dunkirk. Perhaps most noticeable is the swelling volume of refugees arriving in Calais. Volunteers who have been away for only a day or two gasp at the numbers during a scheduled aid distribution, coordinated by charities including Help Refugees, Utopia56 and the Refugee Community Kitchen, on a derelict field next to the woods where many of the refugees sleep.

Utopia56 also delivers aid throughout the night to various locations in Calais. It has seen a marked surge in the demand in recent weeks. "In January we were doing outreach work with two of us in one car with 20 bento boxes of food," Chambon says. "Now each night we make more than 300 bento boxes and there is a bigger distribution run. Two days ago the kitchen made 11 gastro of rice [each contains enough for 60 portions] and all of it is gone."

And aid groups warn that the closure of the notorious Jungle is creating another problem as it gives rise to the inaccurate notion that because the camp has gone, the refugee crisis has also gone. The result is a huge decline in the donations being received, making it tougher to deliver vital support to a growing number of vulnerable people. "Volunteer organisations keep trying to provide some stability, some trust and safety especially for the younger ones, but our resources are running out almost daily," Annie Gavrilescu, regional manager at Help Refugees, tells

The Independent

. "We can no longer meet basic needs like we used to because the refugees here have become invisible to the public in the UK, the support is dwindling."

Aid organisations frequently run out of supplies, leaving many - including this young refugee mother - without footwear or suitable clothing (Emily

Goddard

)

Maya Konforti, of local charity L'Auberge des Migrants, lives just 15 minutes from the distribution site and has also witnessed the rapid influx of refugees to Calais in recent weeks, as well as a shift in the nationalities of people arriving. "Since the fire in Dunkirk the numbers have more than doubled," she says. "Before the fire we had a good 100 hundred people but the fire has brought about another 200 to 250 Afghans - most of the Kurdish stayed in Dunkirk. But here we have also Eritrean, Ethiopian too, and a few Sudanese and Pakistani. They [the Afghans] are now outnumbering the Africans here. It's changed the chemistry of the whole place, but so far so good among everyone. The numbers are growing fast and by the day. And I think the numbers will keep on increasing."

As well as her work with L'Auberge, Konforti is one of a small number of local residents that have been opening their doors to the refugees for a short, restorative stay. She runs a rota system, jotting down names in a notebook as refugees flock around her to get on the list. They all hug her and one fondly puts his hand on her shoulder and calls her "mother". He's wearing a hospital bracelet and they talk about how he has just been released from hospital after a four-day stay with kidney stones. Like a mother figure, she tells him he needs to be careful about what he eats.

Konforti feels that any support she can offer is vital for the refugees, who she says are suffering tremendously in what she describes as a horrendously difficult situation. "The situation is really, really dark," she explains. "There are no tents, no toilets, there haven't been any showers in the last three weeks since the eight temporary ones set up locally were dismantled. I take in four or five people each day. I pick them up in my car, we wash all their clothes, they have a good night's sleep in a real bed, make some food and bring them back here [at the distribution site] at about noon. They get to have a real rest. They're like new people after this. It's amazing."

Although the refugee population is decreasing in Dunkirk, as more people make their way to Calais, there are still many, including young families, sleeping in the woods near to where the Grande-Synthe camp once stood. Volunteers hear that a rumour is being spread about the possibility of a new Jungle there and the fear is that this - likely false hope - is what is keeping them from entering state-run accommodation centres for more appropriate shelter and protection. "There are people here who have even come out of state-provided accommodation to sleep in the woods as they are hoping a new Jungle will be here soon," says Niamh Quille, of the Dunkirk Legal Support Team. "It's not the conditions that are drawing them back."

The number of refugees arriving at scheduled aid distributions is growing by the day (Emily

Goddard

)

Among the homeless refugees in this northern port town is Abdul, 30, who fled from Pakistan in 2009, leaving behind his wife and grocery business. He spent nine months in the Jungle and then stayed in the Grande-Synthe camp until it was destroyed. He has a brother living in the Birmingham and still hopes to get to the UK. He insists he will not give up despite struggling with the challenging conditions. "It is very bad condition in the woods," he says. "It's so very cold and wet and in the night the police come. They beat us and spray us with tear gas, it hurts. But I want to go to the UK because it is a very good life there. My family and friends live there and the British people have very good hearts but it is very difficult to get to the UK now."

An overwhelming number of refugees believe they will find a better life in the UK (Emily

Goddard

)

Meanwhile, Karim, 32, an Iraqi Kurdish, travelled back to Dunkirk only days ago after being stopped trying to cross the border into the UK illegally following his arrival in France just three weeks ago. He gets out the paperwork he has been given by the Border Force and asks for advice to make sense of it. He says he will live destitute in the forest again until he can get to the UK. "My mum keeps telling me to come back to Iraq, she is missing me, but I'm going to go to the UK," he explains. "There are some people here, we paid some money and he will take me somewhere and put me inside the car and in the truck. Then we'll try to get to England that way."

Read more

Hundreds of refugees return to 'secret camps' near Calais

Refugee children in France have started turning back to Calais

Hundreds of child refugees in Calais 'have UK asylum claims rejected'

Calais Jungle wall completed two months after refugees were driven out

Aid organisations warn that the lack of refugee support from authorities is fuelling fears and creating a progressively perilous situation. Gavrilescu of Help Refugees says: "What we're seeing on the ground is the opposite of the authorities' rhetoric. The obstructed legal routes, the instability that creates, the threat of violence they face every night and day, and the inhumane conditions in which refugees in the region are living in is creating fertile ground for smugglers and traffickers to take advantage of people, particularly children."

A Préfecture du Pas-de-Calais spokesperson told

The Independent

: "Associations have the possibility to come to the aid of the refugees present in Calais."

Responding to allegations of police violence against migrants, the spokesperson added: "Fabien Sudry, Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, wishes to make it clear that the accusations of violence against migrants, which the national police are regularly subjected to, are based on no foundation. There have been no recent complaints or referrals to the General Inspectorate of the National Police. The Prefect reaffirms his support for the internal security forces present in the Calais region."

But as the dust settles on France's most extraordinary battle for the Élysée Palace in recent history, is the election of Emmanuel Macron a source of fresh hope for refugees in the north of the country? Guivy of the RYS is reservedly optimistic. "After the election there is hope among the refugees," she says. "Kids have been saying to me, 'I don't need to go to the accommodation centre because there's a new president and there's going to be a new Jungle'. I say, 'no, you calm down'. They hope for a new place to stay where they have showers and won't be kicked out by the police. I'm not too optimistic but we can think that maybe he [Macron] will be more of a Merkel character so we can hope for more decent living for refugees," she says. "Also there is the talk about reshaping the UK agreement so that could change the landscape too."

But until any change results in a more positive environment for refugees, scores of vulnerable people fleeing unthinkable violence and unrest will continue to try to make the journey to the UK through various routes. The draw of what they believe is a better, safer life is too strong to suppress. Adam, 17, from Eritrea arrived in Calais yesterday and is not yet ready to give up on his dream of continuing his education. "It's bad here but I feel safer here than I did in Eritrea. I've come from a bad life. I came by car and by boat. At home I was in the second year of college studying computer science. After I finish studying I will find a job in software development. I'll go to the UK. Everybody here plans to go to the UK. My father is there. I just want to meet my father."


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FinancialWire


May 15, 2017 Monday


Over US$ 1.4 Billion Needed for South Sudan Refugees in 2017


LENGTH: 597 words


The UN Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme today urged donors to step up support for desperate refugees fleeing South Sudan. Humanitarian agencies are seeking USD 1.4 Billion to provide life-saving aid to South Sudanese refugees in the six neighbouring countries until the end of 2017 - according to an updated response plan presented in Geneva on Monday. 



The South Sudanese refugee response plan so far remains only 14 per cent funded.

"Bitter conflict and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in South Sudan are driving people from their homes in record numbers," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

The situation in South Sudan continues to worsen - with a combination of conflict, drought and famine leading to further displacement and a rapid exodus of people fleeing one of the world's most severe crises.

"The suffering of the South Sudanese people is just unimaginable" said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. "They are close to the abyss. Violence is at the root of this crisis. Aid workers often cannot reach the most vulnerable hungry people. Many are dying from hunger and disease, many more have fled their homeland for safety abroad."

South Sudan has now become the world's fastest growing refugee crisis with more than 1.8 million refugees - including one million children, having sought safety in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, DRC and CAR.

The current rate of people fleeing South Sudan exceeds the humanitarian community's already pessimistic estimates. For example, the number of people fleeing to Sudan in March surpassed the expected figure for the entire year. Uganda is also seeing higher than expected arrivals and at this rate is likely to soon host over one million South Sudanese refugees.

"Our funding situation forced us to cut food rations for many refugees in Uganda," Beasley said. "I find that unacceptable, and I hope you do too. These are families like yours and mine, our brothers and sisters, and the world must help them now -- not later. Please help us do the job these people need us to do."

UNHCR welcomed the outstanding generosity refugees have received in South Sudan's neighbouring countries, but is alarmed by a situation which is now critical.

"Countries like Uganda have done all one could expect, but won't be able to sustain support for refugees unless the rest of the world steps up," warned UNHCR's Grandi while presenting the revised needs to donors in Geneva.

With acute underfunding, humanitarian agencies are struggling to provide food, water, nutrition support, shelter and health services to refugees.

Communities hosting refugees are among the world's poorest and are under immense pressure.

"Helping refugees is not just about providing emergency aid," said UNHCR's Grandi. "It also means supporting governments and communities in neighbouring countries to shore up services and economies in the areas receiving them."

UNHCR coordinates the overall response with Governments, humanitarian agencies as well as with refugees and host communities. Currently Uganda hosts some 898,000 refugees, with 375,000 in Sudan, 375,000 in Ethiopia, 97,000 in Kenya, 76,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 2,200 in Central African Republic (CAR).

WFP provides food and cash assistance to more than 1.8 million refugees in the neighbouring countries.

The updated response plan does not cover humanitarian needs of around two million people displaced internally in South Sudan.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 27, 2017 Friday 9:52 AM GMT 


US State Department suspends refugee interviews ahead of pending Donald Trump policy shakeup;
Department of Homeland Security officers regularly visit countries such as Jordan, Malaysia, El Salvador, Kenya and Ethiopia to interview refugees seeking asylum inUS


BYLINE: Yeganeh Torbati


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 536 words


The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has temporarily halted trips by staff to interview refugees abroad as it prepares for a likely shakeup of refugee policy by President Donald Trump, two sources with knowledge of the decision have said. 

The decision effectively amounts to a pause in future refugee admissions, given that the interviews are a crucial step in an often years-long process.

The DHS leadership's decision to halt the interview trips was communicated to those involved in the US refugee admission process on Wednesday, one of the sources said.

It means that though Trump has not yet ordered a temporary halt to the refugee programme, future admissions are likely to be delayed.

Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would include a temporary ban on all refugees, and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries.

Read more

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Muslim employee 'abused by Trump supporter' at US airport

Senator urges Donald Trump's federal employees to blow the whistle

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White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday that Trump could sign several executive orders on Friday, but that the nature of those had not been decided yet.

Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project at the New York-based Urban Justice Center, said she was informed of the decision to halt the overseas interviews by several people in and outside of government.

Gillian Christensen, a spokeswoman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and which conducts the interviews, said the agency had delayed "a number of upcoming trips" but that they had not been "officially canceled."

DHS officers regularly visit countries such as Jordan, Malaysia, El Salvador, Kenya and Ethiopia to interview refugees seeking to enter the United States. It is usually one of the last steps in the refugee resettlement process.

Heller said the decision to halt the overseas interviews would cause delays in refugee processing even if Trump decides to maintain the refugee programme or re-start it after a temporary closure.

"In the past, when we've frozen the refugee programme to re-examine security issues, it's been really important to continue processing even if you can't admit people, because processing times in this programme can be two to three years," Heller said.

During the election campaign, Trump decried former President Barack Obama's decision to increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States over fears that those fleeing the country's civil war would carry out attacks.

Obama approved allowing up to 110,000 refugees in the 2017 fiscal year, compared with 85,000 the prior year.

Trump said during the election campaign that there was no proper system to vet refugees.

In addition to the interviews, refugees hoping to be resettled in the United States undergo extensive security screening by multiple U.S. agencies as well as vetting by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Reuters


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ENP Newswire


June 22, 2017 Thursday


-APO-ECHO contributes 2 million Euros to UNICEF's emergency response to the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda


LENGTH: 572 words


Over 750,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Uganda since July 2016, with over 950,000 South Sudanese refugees now in the country since the beginning of the South Sudan crisis in December 2013. 



The Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) has contributed 2 million Euros - 8 billion Uganda shillings - to UNICEF's emergency nutrition and education response to the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda.

'With over 2,000 South Sudanese refugees arriving in Uganda every day since July 2016, Uganda is now host to the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world,' said Isabelle D'Haudt, ECHO's Humanitarian Advisor for Uganda.

'The European Union is therefore proud to support UNICEF respond to the major nutrition and education needs of children within both refugee and host communities in Uganda.'

Over 750,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Uganda since July 2016, with over 950,000 South Sudanese refugees now in the country since the beginning of the South Sudan crisis in December 2013.

'Considering 60% of all South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are under the age of 18 and 56% of the population in all South Sudanese refugee-hosting districts in the country are children, children are the face of the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda,' said Aida Girma, UNICEF's Representative in Uganda.

'UNICEF is very grateful to the people of the European Union for this contribution, which will help us urgently scale-up our response to many children in acute need.'

With over 2,000 South Sudanese refugees arriving in Uganda every day since July 2016, Uganda is now host to the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world

A recent food security and nutrition assessment conducted in the refugee hosting districts shows high malnutrition rates, stunted development due to chronic malnutrition and high levels of anemia among children and women. Similarly, in the education sector, in both early childhood development (ECD) centers and primary schools, there are vast needs ranging from inadequate classrooms, teaching materials and latrines, among other needs.

The ECHO contribution will enable UNICEF to provide: nutritional screening for all children at refugee entry points; appropriate treatment and care for severely malnourished children; Vitamin A micronutrients and deworming medicine for children; and iron/folate supplementation to pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The nutrition intervention is estimated to reach nearly 200,000 beneficiaries.

For education, UNICEF will construct 7 new ECD centres as well as upgrade 15 ECD centres from a temporary to semi-permanent state, which will provide multi-sectoral quality early childhood development to around 5,000 young children.

As at May 2017, UNICEF's response to South Sudanese refugees and host communities in Uganda has supported:

Over 135,000 children with vaccinations against measles and over 70,000 children with vaccinations against polio; nearly 185,000 people with clean water; 9,000 severely

malnourished children with therapeutic feeding treatment; over 12,000 children who have been separated from their parents and/or families with family tracing and reunification services; over 85,000, children and adolescents to access education; and nearly 50,000 young children to access critical Early Childhood Development services.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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The Guardian


January 10, 2017 Tuesday 7:47 PM GMT 


Manus Island refugee who had breakdown found 'hungry and homeless';
Behaviour of Hamed, who has been released from Lorengau prison following an acute mental health episode, described as erratic and bizarre


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 1052 words


A refugee jailed following an acute mental breakdown in the Manus Island detention centre has been released from prison, only for him to be found wandering the streets of the Papua New Guinea town of Lorengau, half-naked, "hungry and homeless" according to fellow refugees, politicians and police.

The behaviour of Hamed, a refugee from Iran whose surname Guardian Australia has chosen not to publish, has grown increasingly erratic and bizarre, leading to conflicts with the Manussian population.  

"He sometimes was naked and only wearing boxer shorts in the Lorengau streets and most of the time he was hungry and homeless," Manus refugee Behrouz Boochani has reported. "The small children made fun of him and disturbed him. The refugees, local people and police beat him because he was mentally ill and he used to disturb people. Everyone would run away from him because of his behaviour."

Hamed's deteriorating mental health came to authorities' attention as long ago as June, when he was found wandering the detention centre, distressed, naked and screaming incoherently. He was put into "managed accommodation" where he was allegedly assaulted by, and assaulted, guards, before being put in the Lorengau jail for the first time.

Related: It's hard for me to leave Manus Island without justice: Behrouz Boochani on the US refugee deal

Leaked "psychological support" files from within the Manus Island detention centre refer consistently to Hamed's "chaotic presentation" and report he was "agitated, aggressive, verbally abusive, pushing boundaries constantly, and has required police presence on numerous occasions".

He has since been jailed several times after suffering severe mental episodes and behaving unpredictably or aggressively. Detention centre staff have told Guardian Australia Hamed is "a very sick man. He needs serious help".

Manus MP Ron Knight, who arranged for Hamed to be released from prison so he could access mental health care, said he was receiving none.

"To be blunt, the guy is dangerous to all around him and he needs psychiatric help. There is none for him here."

Knight said he approached the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby about Hamed being committed to a psychiatric facility.

"The response to me was basically that our authorities should handle it."

A spokesman for Australia's department of immigration and border protection said Hamed was housed at the East Lorengau refugee transit centre, and his care was the responsibility of PNG's immigration authorities.

"Refugees have access to services, including mental health services, available at the Lorengau Hospital as well as clinic services provided by International Health and Medical Services (IHMS)," the spokesman said.

The department declined to comment on Hamed's specific health care. PNG's immigration and citizenship service did not return calls from Guardian Australia.

Since the PNG supreme court ruled, nearly 10 months ago, that the Manus Island regional processing centre was " illegal and unconstitutional ", cosmetic changes to the detention regime have brought those in detention into greater contact with the Manussian population, which has led to rising tensions.

The men remain in detention, behind high metal fences, unable to move freely and with their communications monitored, but they are allowed to catch daily buses into Lorengau township, returning at night. Scores of men found to be refugees have been moved into the Australian-built and -run East Lorengau refugee transit centre - established as a temporary accommodation for refugees being resettled elsewhere - but which has become de facto long-term housing while Australia negotiates a resettlement plan with other countries.

Boochani, an Iranian refugee and journalist detained on Manus, said Australia was trying to shift responsibility for refugees to PNG.

"The refugees in Manus prison have been under systematic torture for a long time and they need medical treatment and specialist psychological treatment, but instead of protecting them Australia has released them in Lorengau town without any psychological treatment. It's obvious that this situation will make trouble both for the refugees and the local people," Boochani told Guardian Australia.

He said police on Manus were acutely conscious of the tension the presence of refugees was creating in Lorengau.

"The system puts people in conflict and this is a big problem at this moment. Hamed, as a refugee who is need of psychological care, is an example of how Australia does not care about what local people want or about refugees. Instead of providing medical treatment for him, Australia has abandoned him in Manus society where it makes trouble for locals, police, the court and refugees. 

"After causing so much psychological harm they have left a man with a lot of mental problems in a strange society without any protection and put him in danger. They have left him hungry and homeless."

Knight said he was concerned for the safety of the people of Manus as well as that of refugees now allowed out in the community.

He said neither the PNG nor Australian governments was willing to take responsibility for the welfare of refugees, who were being forced into the refugee transit centre without adequate support.

"I am continually facing a brick wall of silence from PNG and Australia who seem to be chucking the issues back and forth.

Related: The judge who unmade Manus Island on why offshore detention has no future

"I have no option now but to make some connection with asylum seeker representatives and come to some common understanding on rules of conduct for both them and my people... lay down some ground rules for common understanding. Failing that, I assure you, bloodshed will occur."

In June, 14 refugees and asylum seekers in the detention centre complained formally about the treatment of Hamed to Broadspectrum, the company subcontracted by the Australian government to run the detention centre.

"We, the signatories to this complaint form want to know why you are not providing mental health support to Hamed... and instead you have subjected him to ill-treatment and corporal punishment because he is not behaving normally due to his mental ailment.

"He is sick and he must be in hospital, not in public... he doesn't have any control over his actions."


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MailOnline


February 6, 2017 Monday 6:30 PM GMT 


Refugees lose fingers to frostbite as they WALK to Canada from the U.S. -because they fear being sent back to their home countries


BYLINE: REUTERS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 979 words



Refugees in the United States fearing a worsening climate of xenophobia in the wake of a divisive U.S. presidential campaign are flocking to Canada in growing numbers. 

Manitoba's Welcome Place refugee agency helped 91 claimants between Nov. 1 and Jan. 25 - more than the agency normally sees in a year. Most braved the freezing prairie winter to walk into Canada.

'We haven't had something before like this,' said Maggie Yeboah, president of the Ghanaian Union of Manitoba, which has helped refugees get medical attention and housing. 'We don't know what to do.'

A temporary restraining order by a U.S. judge of President Donald Trump's executive order that blocked nationwide the implementation of key parts of the travel ban has provided a reprieve for refugees trying to come to the United States.

But Canadian advocacy organizations are bracing for a greater influx of asylum-seekers, driven in part by the contrast between the ruling Liberal government's acceptance of Syrian refugees in Canada with Trump's anti-foreigner rhetoric.

'They will make a dash for Canada, whether they are going to go through cold weather to die or not,' said Abdikheir Ahmed, a Somali immigrant in Manitoba's capital Winnipeg who helps refugees make claims.

Since late summer, 27 men from Ghana walked to Manitoba from the United States, Yeboah said. Two lost all their fingers to frostbite in December and nearly froze to death.

More than 7,000 refugee applicants entered Canada in 2016 through land ports of entry from the United States, up 63 percent from the previous year, according to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Over 2,000 more entered 'irregularly' during a similar time period, without official authorization, such as across unmonitored fields.

Four hundred and thirty asylum seekers crossed Manitoba's border irregularly in the first nine months of 2016-17, up from 340 the entire previous year, CBSA said.

'The U.S. presidential campaign, putting undocumented immigrants and refugees in the spotlight, terrified them,' said Ghezae Hagos, counselor at Welcome Place. 'The election and inauguration of Mr. Trump appears to be the final reason for those who came mostly last month.'

In Quebec, 1,280 refugee claimants irregularly entered between April 2016 and January 2017, triple the previous year's total.

In British Columbia and Yukon, 652 people entered Canada irregularly in 2016, more than double the previous year.

More of these people would enter at border crossings, advocates say, if Canada didn't have a policy of turning many of them away when they do. 

The 2004 Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement requires people to apply for asylum in the first of the two countries they arrive in.

Advocates argue the agreement inadvertently encourages people to dangerously sneak into Canada and make a claim rather than be rebuffed at the border.

If the government doesn't abandon this agreement, they say, it could find itself in court.

The number of refugee applicants crossing the land border under exceptions to the Safe Third Country Agreement has risen by 16 percent in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the same time period the year before.

In Buffalo, New York, hundreds of people are streaming through Vive, a shelter that helps refugee applicants to Canada.

Vive's client numbers, including long-time U.S. residents and refugees, spiked last summer and have stayed consistently high since - two or three times what they'd normally see a year or two ago. Vive's Canadian service manager Mariah Walker expects to see even more.

'Clients are definitely spooked by (Trump's) executive orders,' said Walker.

Prime Minister Trudeau took office in 2015 on a commitment to admit tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.

'While the majority of the world is turning their backs and building walls, the fact that Trudeau took this bold humanitarian goal put on the map,' said Chris Friesen, director of settlement services at Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia.

But this year, Canada plans to take only 7,500 government-assisted refugees - less than half last year's number. People eager to sponsor refugees find themselves waiting years to do so.

Anisa Hussein, 20, and Lyaan Mohammed, 19, hired a smuggler to take them from Somalia to Minneapolis in August, where they planned to settle in a large Somali community. But Trump's anti-refugee rhetoric frightened them into traveling to Manitoba days later.

'(Trump) said he would turn away the refugees and we would go back to Somalia,' said Mohammed, peeking timidly from behind the hood of a thick parka she received in Canada for winter. 'We were so scared. We just wanted to be a safe place.'

They rode a bus and taxi to North Dakota, then walked for hours into Emerson, Manitoba and filed refugee claims.

They might have been able to cross at a port of entry if Canada's policies were different, says Canadian Council for Refugees executive director Janet Dench.

Her organization, as well as Amnesty International and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, are demanding Canada abandon the Safe Third Country Agreement: Trump's United States is no safe haven, they argue.

The government is standing by the agreement, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told the House of Commons last week.

If the government doesn't act, Dench said, her group will sue.

'We are talking about people's charter rights. So, yes, we would expect to see something in the courts.'


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Brechin Advertiser


March 24, 2017 Friday


Refugee integration strategy unveiled


LENGTH: 674 words


A new strategy on supporting refugees in Scotland's communities will be published this year, Equalities Secretary Angela Constance has confirmed.

The landmark New Scots refugee integration strategy, which ran from 2014-17, has been hailed as a trailblazing approach to supporting refugees and asylum seekers to settle in Scotland.

The distinct approach of New Scots aims to enable refugees to settle and rebuild their lives from the day they arrive, to become active members of our communities and realise their full potential. 

A report published today outlines the progress the New Scots strategy has made in the past three years, and acknowledges the areas the new strategy will build on. The strategy will be developed by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council.

Equalities Secretary Angela Constance said: "In the past three years many organisations have worked together under the New Scots strategy to ensure refugees and asylum seekers receive the right support and services they need to help rebuild their lives in Scotland.

"Everyone involved should be rightly proud of what has been achieved. The strong partnership working has provided a warm, supportive welcome for people arriving in Scotland, many of whom have endured great trauma. Scotland has a long history of welcoming refugees and asylum seekers and we want this to continue. New Scots was also vital to ensuring we were able to step up to lead the way in receiving refugees under the Syrian Resettlement Programme.

"New Scots has been recognised as being innovative and progressive. But there is still work to be done. We know integration is a long-term process, and there continues to be some challenges facing those who want to seek refuge in Scotland. As we develop a new strategy this year we will strive to ensure these challenges are overcome."

Mhoraig Green, Policy Manager for COSLA, said: "Councils across the country have taken a leading role in supporting refugees to build a new life in Scotland since the expansion of the Syrian Resettlement Scheme in 2015. The New Scots Framework has provided an invaluable tool for local authorities supporting refugees for the first time. The final report highlights an array of partnership activities that are helping to improve the lives of Scotland's refugees, and we are delighted to see some of the excellent work led by local authorities featured."

Wafa Shaheen, Head of Integration at Scottish Refugee Council, said: "The people we work with are incredibly strong and have huge amounts of determination. They want to start living not simply surviving and that's what we help them to do.

With our partners in New Scots we are working on an ambitious, long-term solution to support refugee integration in Scotland and help people contribute to society and reach their full potential."

Dr Alison Strang, from the Institute for Global Health and Development at Queen Margaret University and Chair of the New Scots Core Implementation Group, said: "The New Scots strategy has brought policy makers, services providers and refugees together around a shared vision for a Scotland where refugees are able to build a new life from the day they arrive in Scotland. Partners in the strategy are committed to integration as a two-way process through which strong social relationships are built in our diverse Scottish communities.

"Looking back over New Scots it is striking to see how relationships between partners have been forged and strengthened through the consultation and implementation process. The existence of this established network, with a shared approach to welcoming refugees, provided a sound basis for a quick and effective response to the arrival of Syrian refugees over the past 18 months.

"There is much to celebrate as we reflect on the work of New Scots. Now is the time to step up a gear as we tackle the ongoing challenges. By extending the reach of the strategy we can ensure that refugees across Scotland can realise their full potential and become active members of our communities."


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FinancialWire


January 13, 2017 Friday


Lack of clarity on refugee resettlement poses threat to long-term success


LENGTH: 914 words


The Public Accounts Committee report warns that despite encouraging progress it will be a significant challenge to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by 2020. Clarity needed on what local councils should provide

In the report, the Committee commends central government, local authorities and other partners in the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme for their efforts to date.
 



However, it finds there is a lack of clarity around responsibilities and entitlements under the programme which could threaten its success in the long-term.

In particular, the Committee is concerned that some councils-which volunteer to participate in the programme-are confused about what they are expected to provide to refugees and exactly how this should be funded. Uncertainty whether survivors of torture or violence are getting specialist help

Some refugees are uncertain about what they are entitled to, and what is expected of them, and it is "not yet clear whether survivors of torture or violence are getting the specialist help they need".

The Committee calls on the Home Office to regularly review the number of remaining indicative pledges made by councils to resettle refugees.

It should work with those councils to ensure they are able to provide firm offers of support and "more clearly specify what local authorities are expected to provide to refugees to address any current disparities or confusion". Measurements of programme's success "too vague"

The Home Office should communicate details of the programme fully and clearly to refugees, says the Committee; review provisions for teaching English to refugees, and work with delivery partners to review how victims of torture are being identified and supported.

The Committee finds central government plans for evaluating the programme "are still too vague" and urges it to set out an effective framework for measuring its success against indicators such as progress with English and employment. Chair's comments

Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the PAC, said:

"Syrians now make up the largest refugee population in the world and the UK is playing its part in helping people who are truly desperate.

While the programme team was right to take a fresh look at the programme last year, more work is needed to make it sustainable in the longer term.

This is a voluntary programme, but one with significant ambition, and it is vital councils' initial pledges of help translate into firm offers of accommodation, support and services for refugees.

Central government must carefully monitor this process and also be clearer with local authorities, already wrestling with significant financial challenges, about what they are expected to take on.

More must also be done to ensure refugees understand the programme, not least their entitlements and restrictions.

It is a stark fact that more than half of the refugees resettled under the programme by the end of June last year had suffered torture or violence and it is critical that such people receive specialist support.

Our Committee has previously highlighted the shortcomings in access to mental health services and we call on the Government to ensure a plan is in place to properly support refugees in need of them.

It is important to recognise the efforts and achievements of those bodies involved in the early part of this programme, which resettled 1,000 refugees before Christmas 2015. But there is a long way to go.

The programme can only succeed and deliver value for money long-term if the Government is properly able to evaluate its success and adjust its provisions accordingly.

It must set out detailed plans for this now or risk failing those refugees it is intended to support, as well as undermining public perceptions of the programme's benefits." Report summary

The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme has performed well so far, providing support to some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees. We commend the Home Office (the Department) and the other government departments, local authorities and delivery partners involved for their efforts and their achievements so far.

After a concerted effort to resettle 1,000 refugees before Christmas 2015, the programme team sensibly took a step back in early 2016 to redesign a more sustainable programme. However, meeting the overall target, to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in the UK by May 2020, remains a significant challenge.

Local authorities' participation in the programme is voluntary and the success of the programme will depend on their statements of good intention translating into firm offers of places. Progress encouraging but issues remain that need addressing

The number of refugees in the programme is small compared to the total number of people local authorities support. But some local authorities are confused about what exactly it is they are expected to provide to refugees and have also expressed concerns about what programme funds will cover and what they will need to pay for out of their other budgets.

Some refugees are uncertain about what they are entitled to, and what is expected of them, as part of the programme. It is not yet clear whether survivors of torture or violence are getting the specialist help they need to be able to come to terms with their experiences.

While progress so far is certainly encouraging, it is essential that these issues are addressed to ensure the success of the programme in the long-term.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Guardian(London)


May 29, 2017 Monday 7:00 AM GMT 


Hope hard to kindle for the forgotten refugees of Central African Republic;
After fleeing conflict at home, 11,000 Central Africans have found safety at Mbilé camp in Cameroon. But the demise of a scheme that meant women no longer had to scavenge for firewood has added to concern about meagre food rations


BYLINE: Kate Lyons in eastern Cameroon


SECTION: GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT; Version:1


LENGTH: 1303 words


In Mbilé refugee camp in the east of Cameroon, home to 11,000 people from Central African Republic, making even a small fire has all too often been the stuff of nightmares.

Until last year, the women in charge of such chores would have to walk up to five hours a day to pick up what firewood they could scavenge. Stories of women being attacked on these journeys - beaten and raped - were common.

"There was violence, I didn't experience it, but it happened frequently," says Hammadou Aishaidu, 23, a refugee in the camp. "I was very, very afraid."

Related: 'The Central African Republic must be built from scratch' 

Last April, a scheme to make small fuel briquettes out of sawdust and clay changed things. No longer obliged to travel outside the camp in search of wood, the women felt safer.

There were other benefits, too. The briquettes- neat, environmentally friendly lumps of fuel - provided work and helped relations with the local population, who were unhappy about refugees felling trees and the competition for firewood.

But Bouba Rabiatou, president of the women's committee at Mbilé, wishes the venture had never begun. "If the programme is going to end, it would have been better if they never started it," she says. "Now it's introduced, the women have changed their lives and have some security."

In June, the scheme will stop operating. It was funded for just 18 months and the last four months of this period will be taken up with evaluation and reporting. So next month, the 12,000 francs a week that the refugees have received for their labour will stop and, crucially, there will be no more money available to transport sawdust - a key ingredient of the briquettes - into the camp.

This is just one of the short-term projects 43-year-old Rabiatou has seen arrive, only to disappear shortly after. Last year, a market garden scheme was launched to allow women to grow food to sell. It ended before a second crop could even be planted.

At Timangolo camp, three hours away, Ali Salihou, president of the refugee youth committee, tells of a sewing programme, meant to give young people the skills and equipment to make a living. The scheme was a success, he says, for the four people who were able to get on it. But it was never expanded and there are roughly 2,000 people aged 20-35 at Timangolo camp, many of whom are unemployed.

Perversely, these income-generating activities are disappearing at the precise moment refugees need them. Global funding for their plight is drying up, and in January the situation facing refugees from Central African Republic in east Cameroon was labelled a "forgotten crisis" by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

The region, about the size of Iceland, hosts 274,000 Central African refugees, roughly 60% of those who fled into neighbouring countries after violence broke out between predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels and the Christian anti-balaka militia group in December 2013.

The first phase of response to the crisis, according to Basème Kulimushi, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Batouri, was about "saving maximum lives possible". When this cycle ended in 2015, attention and funding started to wane, the situation eclipsed by events in the north, where refugees were streaming across the border from Nigeria as they fled the violence of Boko Haram.

Last year, the UNHCR office in Cameroon needed $55m (£43m); they received $21m, said Kulimushi. By April, they had received pledges equivalent to just 5% of the $49m required to support refugees in the country this year. Cash for the World Food Programme's work with Central African refugees in Cameroon has also dropped off: last October, food rations for refugees had to be halved.

On the monthly food distribution day at Mbilé, Nouhu Habiba, 28, gets up very early, waiting for hours to collect food for herself and her three children, aged nine, six and six months. She drags three plastic sacks off a shelf - one containing sorghum, another yellow peas, and the third corn-soya blend - together with a container of cooking oil.

"This has to last for one month," says Habiba. But it will not, leaving her and her husband struggling to find food for themselves and the children.

Habiba ran away from Bossembélé after her village was attacked by anti-balaka militia in 2014; seven members of her family died. It took her four months to walk to Cameroon. They walked for days without food, drinking water from puddles that was hot, because it was the dry season. A few days into the journey their group was set upon by bandits and one of her daughters was held hostage until the family gave up all the possessions with which they had fled.

She welcomes the security of the refugee camp but the lack of food is a struggle. "The advantage is there is a hospital, the disadvantage is that there is not enough food," she says.

The majority of Central African refugees in Cameroon live in local villages rather than camps.

Françoise Collet, EU ambassador to Cameroon, says the poverty that afflicts the country's east makes the situation there of at least as much concern as that in the dangerous north.

"A number of visitors consider the situation in the eastern region is worse than the far north because of the poverty, the lack of development, the lack of attention from the authorities," says Collet.

"In the north, it's a much more deteriorated situation in terms of security, but in the eastern part, the under-development is much more obvious and indeed is aggravated by the refugee crisis."

The poverty is evident driving along the red dirt roads between villages in the east. These are lined by houses, sometimes made of brick, sometimes of sticks and mud. Outside the houses - on stoops, overturned barrels, tree stumps - people place their wares for passersby to inspect: a hand of plantain or bananas, a bowl of green mangoes, piles of dried white cassava.

Many locals are pleased refugees have arrived, since it means aid agencies will follow.

"The presence of the refugees is an advantage for us because [aid agencies] have done so much for them," says Amina, a Cameroonian mother of eight who lives on the outskirts of Boubara, a village that has taken in 2,000 people from CAR. "They have helped with the schools, the water points, even food; they renovated the health centre."

Collet says balancing help for refugees with help for local people is important but difficult, as it goes beyond responding to a crisis, ranging into the development of infrastructure and services. Responsibility for the latter lies primarily with national and local authorities, she says.

"We are very careful to bring basic services not just to the refugees but also to the local population. It would not be fair to have refugees who are better cared for than the local population.

Related: CAR refugees face uncertainty across the border: 'Death was in front of us and we had to run away'

Kulimushi says: "They are a very poor community, sometimes poorer than the refugees themselves."

Despite their poverty, says Kulimushi, locals were the "first responders to the CAR crisis". Before the UN arrived to assist refugees, Cameroonian villagers were giving them food, water and shelter.

"When the refugees arrived the host community welcomed them," says Amina. "Now, when refugees have food, they give some back to those who helped them."

There are tensions, especially over refugees grazing their cattle on pastoral land. And if funding for refugees dries up, so that they are no longer seen as a way of improving conditions in a local village but rather as a drain upon them, things could worsen.

For now, though, relations are mostly amicable between locals and villagers, whose shared concern is ensuring they are not forgotten by the aid agencies upon which they both rely so heavily.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:37 AM GMT 


Syrian refugees shocked, sad as Trump bans them from the US


BYLINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 554 words


Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States. 

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Trump suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S. for four months and banned the entry of Syrian refugees indefinitely, pending a security review of the admissions program in an executive order signed on Friday.

In a third step, he issued a 90-day ban on all entry to the U.S. from countries with terrorism concerns, including Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since the conflict there erupted in 2011. Millions more are displaced within Syria.

Most refugees have settled in overburdened neighboring countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey where the struggle for survival has become increasingly difficult. Savings have run out, jobs are scarce and poorly paid, while refugee children learn in crowded classrooms and have very limited access to higher education.

Many refugees say their first choice is to return home as soon as possible. But with the civil war dragging on, that's not an option and refugees increasingly pursue resettlement to the West because of tough conditions in regional host countries.

International aid agencies harshly criticized Trump's restrictions imposed on refugees.

The International Rescue Committee said the suspension of the refugee resettlement program was a 'harmful and hasty' decision. 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope,' said IRC President David Miliband.

The group said the U.S. vetting process for refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by 12 to 15 government agencies.

Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Trump's decision hurts innocents fleeing extremist violence in Syria.

'It will not make America safer,' Egeland told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Norway. 'It will make America smaller and meaner. It's a really sad rupture of a long and proud American bi-partisan tradition that America would be there for those fleeing from terror and for the weak and the vulnerable in the world, which are the refugees.'

The NRC is a leading refugee aid agency, assisting more than 1 million Syrians.

___

Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.


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Express Online


January 6, 2017 Friday 2:43 PM GMT 


Police should have more powers to search immigrants' mobile phones says refugee chief


BYLINE: Allan Hall in Berlin


LENGTH: 510 words


A GERMAN refugee chief wants police to have more powers to examine the mobile telephones of newcomers to ascertain their true identities.

GETTY

A German refugee chief wants police to have more powers to examine newcomers phones 

In the wake of the Christmas market massacre and the discovery that assassin Anis Amri roamed around Europe with 14 aliases, pressure is on the police and security services to find out who is exactly who among the hordes of migrants currently in Germany.

Last week it was revealed that up to 300 migrants using multiple identities in the city of Braunschweig had defrauded the taxpayer out of benefits worth close to five million pounds.

Related articles Refugee, 24, who raped a grandmother in park claimed she WANTED sex Fire breaks out at German migrant centre housing hundreds of refugees 

Now the commissioner for refugee management, Frank-Jürgen Weise, is pressing for authorities to delve into the mobile phone histories of the new arrivals in a bid to find out who they really are.

"The mobile phone can mean a crucial access for identification for us. Technically there's opportunities that are already legally applicable," he said.

GETTY

Frank-Jürgen Weise also complained about 'technical problems' in refugee registration

Weise also complained that there were still "technical problems" in the registration of refugees due to hundreds of different types of computer software being used in arrival centres across the country.

Police and security services upped the number of potential terrorists among the refugees from 500 to 585 in December. Many of these have multiple identities.

A speech recognition machine is also being developed to detect subtle differences in dialects.

The authorities are working backwards through the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals to check the bona fides of all who claimed they fled war and terror.

But Germany's development Minister Gerd Müller warned of a "capitulation of the State" in the refugee policy. The Bavarian CSU politician demanded the storage of biometric data for all refugee arrivals in Germany.

He said the number of abuses of the social welfare system by migrants now stands in the tens of thousands.

Detective Ulf Küch in Lower Lower Saxony claimed the average refugee welfare fiddler pocketed an average of 10,000 euros each.

GETTY

300 migrants using multiple identities have defrauded the German taxpayer Braunschweig

"This is intolerable, and thats shabby compared to the many, many refugees, who are honestly here," added Müller said. He urged therefore a review of all of the people who came to Germany and a system to store their fingerprints to ascertain real identities.

Every German has an identity card or passport, said the minister. "We must demand the same for the refugees who arrived. Anything else would be a capitulation of the State," he added.

Related articles Untrained refugees employed as security guards in Cologne on New Year Germany could scrap minimum wage for refugee and migrant workers Syrian refugee 'planning multiple bomb attacks' arrested by police


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:37 AM GMT 


'All our hopes and dreams vanished': Refugees and Middle Eastern relatives speak out in the wake of Trump's immigration ban


BYLINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAILY MAIL REPORTER


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 734 words



A refugee who fled worn-torn Syria and dreamed of living in the United States with his family is among those who have spoken out following Trump's immigration ban. 

Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the US three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his plan for a better life fell apart when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Sawan is among thousands of people who will be affected by the ban.

Yousif AlAkwa, 20, from Yemen, told CNN his parents live in California and he visited last year but left to complete his studies overseas. He now fears he won't be able to visit them.

Iraqi college student Tasnim Abubakir Alsalhi wants to study physics in the US, and does not believe refugees should be banned altogether. 

'I think they have the right to be careful but they should not ban everyone or me based on where I come from,' she told CNN. 'I think there should be better ways to prevent terrorism in the USA.'

Trump suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S. for four months and banned the entry of Syrian refugees indefinitely, pending a security review of the admissions program in an executive order signed on Friday.

In a third step, he issued a 90-day ban on all entry to the U.S. from countries with terrorism concerns, including Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since the conflict there erupted in 2011. Millions more are displaced within Syria.

Most refugees have settled in overburdened neighboring countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey where the struggle for survival has become increasingly difficult. 

Savings have run out, jobs are scarce and poorly paid, while refugee children learn in crowded classrooms and have very limited access to higher education.

Many refugees say their first choice is to return home as soon as possible. But with the civil war dragging on, that's not an option and refugees increasingly pursue resettlement to the West because of tough conditions in regional host countries.

International aid agencies harshly criticized Trump's restrictions imposed on refugees.

The International Rescue Committee said the suspension of the refugee resettlement program was a 'harmful and hasty' decision. 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope,' said IRC President David Miliband.

The group said the U.S. vetting process for refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by 12 to 15 government agencies.

Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Trump's decision hurts innocents fleeing extremist violence in Syria.

'It will not make America safer,' Egeland told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Norway. 'It will make America smaller and meaner. It's a really sad rupture of a long and proud American bi-partisan tradition that America would be there for those fleeing from terror and for the weak and the vulnerable in the world, which are the refugees.'

The NRC is a leading refugee aid agency, assisting more than 1 million Syrians. 


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FinancialWire


May 19, 2017 Friday


As Yemen conditions deteriorate, Somali refugees look to return home


LENGTH: 523 words


This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch - to whom quoted text may be attributed - at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva

GENEVA, Switzerland /APO/ -- As the bitter conflict in Yemen grinds on and the humanitarian situation there continues to deteriorate, conditions facing the almost 280,000 refugees in-country are worsening and their needs and vulnerabilities are growing by the day.
 



Yemen has remained both a destination and a transit hub for refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa and beyond, the overwhelming majority of refugees in Yemen, 91 per cent or some 255,000, are Somali refugees who have been coming to the country since the early nineties.

Though Yemen has traditionally been very generous in accepting those in need of international protection and is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula signatory to the Refugee Convention and the Protocol, the ongoing war has limited the capacities to provide adequate assistance and protection to refugees.

After more than two years of war, many refugees face increased hardship; struggling to cover basic needs, losing livelihoods and lacking access to basic and essential services.

With conflict in Yemen affecting civilians and resulting in deaths and casualties, some 30,600 Somalis have reportedly already returned to Somalia from Yemen since the beginning of the current war. An increasing number are now approaching UNHCR for assistance to support their return, citing safety and security concerns and limited access to services in Yemen.

UNHCR is now providing some support to those choosing to return on their own. In 2017, UNHCR is able to assist up to 10,000 Somali refugees who have made the choice to return, based on the information received at Return Help Desks on conditions in Somalia and the assistance package that is being offered both in Yemen and Somalia. UNHCR's humanitarian operations in Yemen will continue to provide support to those refugees who remain in Yemen.

Most Somali refugees registered in Yemen originate from Banadir, Lower Shabelle, Bay, Middle Shabelle and Woqooyi Galbeed regions in Somalia. In Yemen, most reside in Aden, Sana'a and Lahj governorates, the latter of which is where Yemen's only refugee camp, the Kharaz refugee camp, is located.

UNHCR assistance will include documentation, travel and transportation assistance and financial support in Yemen to facilitate the journey, as well as assistance upon arrival in Somalia. Special measures will be put in place for the travel of individuals with specific needs. Most refugees opt to return to Mogadishu, in the anticipation that assistance and services will be more accessible and available.

In Yemen, UNHCR has been providing protection and services for refugees and asylum seekers including by providing legal assistance, supporting education and livelihoods programs, and providing access to health and pyscho-social services, a cash programme for persons with specific needs amongst others.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



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The Independent - Daily Edition


May 29, 2017 Monday  
First Edition


Flat-pack future;
Refugee populations have long been reliant on charitable aid agencies. Could business investment from companies such as Ikea change the norm, Rachel England asks


BYLINE: RACHEL ENGLAND


SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 46


LENGTH: 1372 words


Last November, Ikea took a pioneering step in its already comprehensive sustainability programme. The furniture retailer decided to open production centres near Jordanian refugee camps in Amman with the aim of eventually providing employment for 200,000 disadvantaged people in the area - refugees included, both inside the city and on its outskirts.

Where many brands and retailers count promotional activities and donations to those in conflict-stricken areas among their CSR efforts, Ikea's approach implements a more long-term, sustainable model of support. But in doing this, the company has entirely turned on its head the traditional perception of refugee status. A statement released by the brand says that one of the main aims of the programme is "supporting Jordan's journey in integrating refugees with locals in the labour market through creating jobs".

The objective, then, is not to simply maintain a temporary population, but to allow a growing community and the location in which it's based to thrive and flourish - a notion that briefly touched the headlines in 2015 when Kilian Kleinschmidt, a humanitarian aid expert, told Dezeen, an architecture and design magazine, that governments need to view refugee camps as "the cities of tomorrow". 

The quote was widely reported, most likely, Kleinschmidt himself notes, because it completely contradicts the "refugee narrative" to which the world has become accustomed.

"We need to get away from the idea that refugees are poor little things that need to be fed and pampered - they're capable human beings," says Kleinschmidt, who worked for 25 years for the UN and the UN High Commission for Refugees in various camps and operations worldwide. "The whole aid conversation is about victims, which is why so many Europeans think these people are a burden, and not in fact an opportunity for change or development."

Kleinschmidt applauds Ikea's Jordan initiative. "There are three billion people living in poverty, and they need jobs. It's great that a brand name as recognisable as Ikea is finally sending that signal."

He points to an initiative called ReBootKamp (RBK) as another example of a refugee-focused programme that offers a meaningful hand up. RBK provides intensive IT training to Syrian refugees with the aim of turning them into high quality software engineers. There are no upfront costs or previous education requirements, women are especially encouraged to apply and all graduates are guaranteed employment upon completion of the 12-week course.

To be clear, this isn't a charitable programme, but rather one born of the age-old notion of supply and demand. Speaking to Wamda, an Middle Eastern entrepreneurial website, Hugh Bosely, the director of RBK, said securing backing for the programme was "an easy sell": "Silicon Valley stepped up to the plate and threw their whole weight behind us. We've had pledges to hire every programmer we can produce, that's how much demand there is for it."

And yet, Kleinschmidt says, there is a wariness about integrating refugee communities with technology: "Refugees are associated with poverty - the idea that you can connect them with something from the 21st century is an alien concept to many. Not only that, but again, the victim narrative would suggest doing so is exploitative in some way.

"I was visiting one of these coding classes, accompanied by some people from an NGO who felt it wasn't right for 'these poor people to be thrown into the capitalist IT industry'. How arrogant to think that these people need protection from capitalism - capitalism existed in their home countries before they were displaced, and capitalism is how jobs are created.

"We've been treating aid in the same way since the Second World War, but now the most helpful kind of aid would come in the form of attracting companies and establishing economic cycles in places they wouldn't happen organically."

In other words, helping people to help themselves, or in this context, giving them the freedom to help themselves. One area where this approach has seen great success is in Uganda's Bidi Bidi refugee camp. Uganda has an extraordinarily compassionate refugee policy, where refugees are free to work, travel and mix with the surrounding community, and families are given a plot of land on which to build a house - plus more for farming.

Instead of a temporary crisis centre, Bidi Bidi is becoming a thriving community where people will settle to make their home. The boundaries between the refugee settlement and the existing village are merging - the historical conception story of many an established European city - and the local economy is booming.

In fact, a 2016 study by the University of California Davis and the UN World Food Programme found that "refugees' purchases benefit local and national economies, and economic benefits exceed the amount of donated aid". The presence of refugees is an economic boost, not a burden.

There is, Kleinschmidt believes, a huge amount of untapped value in refugee populations: "There are many places in Europe that are like ghost towns because people have moved elsewhere - governments could put in a whole new population with opportunities to trade and work. Or at least welcome them into existing economies. There are 600,000 job vacancies in Germany: during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis it was the business associations pushing Merkel to allow new people in, people who would benefit from a new home while giving the country an economic boost. The model is win-win."

Such is the mutually beneficial nature of this model that the World Bank Finance Development Forum hosts an annual conference to discuss investment opportunities in fragile markets. More than 100 partners and 600 participants come together to push forward the sustainable development agenda in a world affected by conflict and violence. But while there can be no doubt that there's an appetite from the business world to engage disadvantaged communities, bureaucratic challenges mean a lot of the potential will never come to fruition.

"Governments are afraid of normalising refugee environments," says Kleinschmidt. "They are traditionally seen as temporary measures, and as such they are created to be temporary. Camps are poorly planned and refugees struggle to get work permits - they are being held hostage by red tape and outdated thinking."

Josephine Liebl, a policy advisor at Oxfam, agrees: "There is an argument that keeping people in one space makes providing them with access to basic services and protection easier in an emergency situation. While this is true in many cases, it is not a valid justification for restricting the movement of refugees indefinitely, or refusing to explore more innovative ways to help refugees outside of camps."

However, she notes that these 'more innovative ways' are not without their challenges, and represent a stark contrast to traditional aid approaches.

"The reasons behind investing to create refugee jobs are often murky, with a lot of unanswered questions: are retailers fuelling a race-to-the-bottom on labour rights by benefiting from lower wage work and weaker labour protections? Are they taking production away from better quality jobs? What is the wider impact of moving production centres? Are lower standard jobs being created?

"This Ikea initiative could be life-changing for people if implemented in a way that promotes and protects labour rights, and potentially an example to follow for the private sector in Jordan and other parts of the world; that is why it is important to get it right."

But changing an entrenched approach to aid, and to those in receipt of it, will not happen overnight, and there may well be lessons learned along the way, says Kleinschmidt: "People want to work. They don't want to be pitied and dependent, which is why we are seeing more and more that the most meaningful aid is initiated by business that recognises the value of people, rather than charities that see victims.

"It's a very slow transformation but aid is gradually taking on a new identity. As more governments and aid agencies move away from old-fashioned approaches and business gets more involved, the whole landscape will look very different in 10 years' time."


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dailyrecord.co.uk


April 28, 2017 Friday 9:01 AM GMT 


OAP refugee begs for better treatment of today's migrants;
Theodor Davidovic, 92, from Serbia, came to Scotland in 1947 after living in tented refugee camps in Europe for more than two years.


BYLINE: By Annie Brown


SECTION: NEWS,SCOTTISH NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 720 words


A former resistance fighter who fled to Scotland after World War II believes life is harder for the refugees of today.

Theodor Davidovic, 92, from Serbia, came to Scotland in 1947 after living in tented refugee camps in Europe for more than two years.

A powerful animation has now been produced, narrated by Theodor, which tells the story of how he came to make his home here, settling in Fife. 

The stunning film, made to mark Christian Aid Week's 60th anniversary, calls for refugees to be allowed the same sanctuary given to Theodor.

Around 1089 migrants are believed to have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year.

In 2016, the final number believed to have died in the Mediterranean surpassed 5000, which the UN refugee agency said was the "worst annual death toll ever seen".

Education in Emergencies: How EU funding is teaching refugee kids a new way of life

Theodor said: "When I was walking in the world as a refugee, there was at least peace in the world, but now there is war. It is not people's fault that they are refugees".

Theodor was orphaned when he was eight and at 12, he left school and was sold into the domestic servitude of a wealthy man, where he remained until he was 16.

He added: "When the war broke out, I got my freedom from that slavery."

Theodor joined the resistance movement against the Nazis but fled when he was 20 years old as the royalist Chetniks and Tito's communists wrestled for power after the war.

He said: "I was in camps like you see now in Lebanon and Syria. Tents for two-and-a-half years, from one city to another, from one country to another."

Theodor found himself in refugee camps in Italy and Germany. He said he will never forget the food parcels he received from Christian Aid.

He added: "I feel I owe my life to that. I vowed there and then to do my best as long as I live."

Aged 22, Theodor escaped the refugee camps and found his way to Scotland.

World War II saw the largest scale migration of people to Britain in its history. Working initially as a coal miner, at 26 Theodor met his future wife Betty in a dance hall in Kirkcaldy.

He said: "When I saw her, my legs went weak."

They married in 1953 and now have two sons and four grandchildren.

At least 68 children among 126 refugees killed by suicide car bomb as they tried to leave besieged Syrian towns

After running a successful shoe repair business in Edinburgh for 50 years, he retired at the age of 76 to become a full-time carer for Betty.

Theodor said; "I came to Scotland as a refugee in 1947 and I am grateful for the sanctuary and safety that I found and I couldn't have been happier."

He said that same welcome should now be shown to today's refugees.

He said: "I appeal to all the Christians - your Christianity is not only to come and pray and sing hymns. It is to put your belief in actions - helping somebody who needs your help and showing love and compassion to the wider world."

Today, tens of millions of people are forced from their homes by war, conflict and disaster.

Many are forced to make life-threatening journeys in search of a safe place to call home.

While the majority of today's refugees seek sanctuary in Africa, Asia and Latin America, more than one million people have crossed into Europe. With borders across the continent now closed to refugees, thousands are stranded and in need of urgent help.

The numbers of displaced have surpassed those seen after World War II.

Two years after the end of the war, some 850,000 people lived in refugee camps across Europe.

The total number of displaced at the end of 2015 reached 65.3million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Almost one per cent of the world's population is either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee.

Every minute, 24 people are displaced.

Dozens of refugees killed in car bomb attack during bid to flee war-torn Syrian city

Sally Foster-Fulton, head of Christian Aid Scotland, said: "Theodor's lifelong commitment to loving his neighbour is an inspiration to us all.

"Millions of people still have no safe place to call home - men, women and children, our brothers and sisters, forced to conflict, danger and persecution.

"This Christian Aid Week, we invite everyone to join us, standing in solidarity and support with refugees and those living in poverty."

Top news stories today


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FinancialWire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


Africa's largest refugee crisis now a "children's crisis" UNICEF


LENGTH: 509 words


Raising alarm over the plight of refugees, in particular the situation of women and children, arriving in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya having fled violence and instability in South Sudan, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called on governments to do more to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected. 



Since violence erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, more than 1.8 million people, including more than one million children have arrived in neighbouring countries.

Many of them have fled "horrific violence," according to the UN agency's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Leila Pakkala.

"Day after day, week after week, they are being received by countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya," she added.

In just one year the refugee population in Uganda has more than doubled from 500,000 to more over 1.25 million, making the country host to the fastest growing refugee emergency in the world.

According to estimates, nearly 86 per cent of all refugees in the country are women and children and Uganda is now the third largest refugee-hosting country in the world, after Turkey and Pakistan.

"Uganda has a progressive and generous open door policy to refugees [...] providing better prospects for refugee children than in many contexts globally," said Ms. Pakkala, expressing hope that such a model is supported widely across countries.

However, the sheer scale of the crisis has put both the Government as well as host-communities under tremendous stress. UN agencies and humanitarian partners too are in urgent need of resources. Day after day, week after week, thousands of refugees are being received by countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya

In order sustain relief programmes, the Government of Uganda and UN are calling for $ 8 billion in funding for both emergency response and resilience interventions for the country's refugees and refugee-hosting population over the next four years.

Within this appeal, UNICEF operations require nearly $ 50 million in 2017 as well as $ 30 million each year from 2018-2020 to provide critical health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, early childhood development, adolescent development, and child protection interventions, for both refugee and host community children.

Resources are also needed in Ethiopia and Kenya - together hosting about 800,000 South Sudanese refugees.

UNICEF requires $ 13.6 million for its programmes to respond to the new influx of refugees in Ethiopia's Gambella Region, and $ 7.3 million for its response in Kenya.

In addition to funds, the UN agency has also reiterated its call on governments to adopt its six-point agenda for action to protect refugee and migrant children and ensure their well-being, which was launched ahead of the G7 Summit in Italy in late May.

At the same time, UNICEF also called for efforts ensure that families are kept together and uprooted children stay in school and stay healthy but above all causes that force children to flee in the first place are addressed.



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The Guardian(London)


March 15, 2017 Wednesday 5:51 AM GMT 


US could take more than 1,250 refugees from Manus and Nauru, Senate told;
But Australia's ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking concedes deal won't empty island detention centres


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 831 words


The US could take more than the mooted 1,250 refugees from Australia's offshore immigration detention islands of Manus and Nauru, Australia's ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking has told a Senate inquiry.

But Andrew Goledzinowski has also conceded the US deal will not be sufficient to empty the islands of the refugees currently held there.

Related: Manus centre has been closed, PNG chief justice says - despite the 800 men still held there 

Appearing before the inquiry established following the Guardian's publication of the Nauru files, Goledzinowski said that the final details of the American refugee deal would be determined by the US government, but that it would not be correct to characterise the 1,250 figure floated publicly by the Trump administration as the "upper limit" to the deal.

"The US administration has undertaken to take 50,000 [refugees] this year globally. Whether they end up taking more than 1,250 from Manus and Nauru, or significantly less, is impossible to say at this stage," Goledzinowski said.

"It'll be a function of how many apply to go to the United States, it'll be a function of how many are determined by the United States to qualify for their refugee intake requirements, and then, of course, security vetting on top of that.

"It could well be that the US eventually chooses to take more than 1,250."

But he conceded there was no requirement under the deal for the US to take a single refugee from Australia's offshore detention regime, and that the US could take zero, or just a handful of refugees, and still be upholding the agreement.

"That's not our expectation," Goledzinowski said.

Related: The Nauru files: the lives of asylum seekers in detention detailed in a unique database - interactive

"It's as likely that they will take 2,000 as they will take zero; I think the likelihood is somewhere in-between."

Goledzinowski said many of those held on Australia's offshore islands - most are entering their fourth year in detention there - fled the Middle East before the rise of Isis.

"For the US, who they take is very important, from the point of view of security. These are refugees who have now been assessed for a period of some years. They are people who, very importantly, who have come from the Middle East ... before the rise of Isis, and it may well be open to the US to find that these refugees are actually more attractive, in terms of their resettlement program, than some other refugees.

"So we would hope that the maximum number can be taken. We don't know yet exactly how many that will be."

Goledzinowski, a career diplomat, was appointed in November 2014 to lead Australia's international engagement against people smuggling, trafficking and slavery.

Currently, about 1,600 people in offshore detention have been recognised as refugees, that is they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland and cannot be returned there.

Goledzinowski said the US deal would not resettle enough refugees to see the offshore detention camps closed.

"There will be a balance. There is no question in my mind that there will be some who won't qualify or who will choose not to go to the US."

Related: Trump lashes 'dumb deal' with Australia on refugees after fraught call with Turnbull

Those who remain have the options: to resettle in Cambodia - where just six people have gone at this stage, and only two of whom who remain, at a cost of more than $40m; to resettle in PNG - where 25 people have resettled; or to remain on Nauru for up to 20 years.

Australia, Goledzinowski said, remained actively engaged in looking for other "third countries" in which to resettle refugees from its offshore detention regime.

He also confirmed that the offer from New Zealand - to resettle 150 refugees from Australia's detention regime every year - remained a "live" offer, but it had not been taken up by Australia.

The US refugee deal was brokered between the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and Barack Obama in November last year. Incoming President Trump has described the arrangement as a " dumb deal " and lambasted Turnbull over it during a fractious phone call in January. Trump's administration, however, has insisted the deal will be upheld.

The US agreement to take refugees from Australian-run camps was struck two months after Australia agreed to take refugees from the "northern triangle" countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, currently held in US-controlled camps in Costa Rica.

The Australian government has insisted there is no "quid pro quo" on the refugee resettlement deals, and that the two deals were not a " people swap ".

Australia's two offshore detention centres cost more than $300m to run for less than six months to the end of last year. From July 1, 2016 to December 16, 2016 - a period of about 5 ½ months - the Manus Island detention centre cost $177m and the Nauru centre $165m.

Those figures would predict an annual cost for running offshore detention of in excess of $700m, about $60m a month.


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


May 19, 2017 Friday


Rwanda prepares for massive homecoming by returnees


LENGTH: 716 words


Text of report in English by Rwandan newspaper The New Times website on 18 May;subheadings as published

At least 12,000 Rwandans who still live in foreign countries as refugees could return home between July and June next year as a result of implementation of the Cessation Clause, officials at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR) have said.

The estimate was revealed yesterday by Minister Seraphine Mukantabana before the parliamentary Standing Committee on National Budget and Patrimony to which he presented MIDIMAR's Budget Estimates for Financial Year 2017/18. 

The minister said that after 31 December Rwandan refugees who fled their country before 31 December 31 1998 will no longer be considered as refugees and a massive homecoming by returnees should be expected during the next fiscal year that starts in July and ends in June next year.

"Because 31 December is the very last date, they may consider it as serious and decide to come home. We have advised the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to set aside as much money as possible to be able to receive and reintegrate every Rwandan who will come home," she told journalists shortly after meeting with the MPs.

Under the Cessation Clause, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has been working with governments across the world to implement a strategy of bringing to proper closure the situation of Rwandan refugees who fled the country before 31 December 1998.

The strategy for invoking the clause contains four components to ensure that Rwandans who fall under the category no longer claim to be refugees, including their voluntary repatriation, local integration in host countries, retention of refugee status for people still in need of international protection, and the invocation of the cessation clause, which would see them lose refugee status.

Inside the Cessation Clause

The UNHCR defines cessation clauses as built into the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 Organisation of African Unity Refugee Convention, which provide for refugee status to end once fundamental and durable changes have taken place in the country of origin and the circumstances that led to flight no longer exist.

In the case of Rwanda, UNHCR has recommended that cessation come into effect from 30 June 2013, but the deadline has since been postponed several times until the latest one, which is due on 31 December 2017.

Both Rwandan and UNHCR officials in the country say the current social, political, and security conditions in the country are favourable enough for Rwandan refugees to return home.

"The situation in Rwanda is perfect. Refugees should come back home. There won't be postponement of the Cessation Clause," said UNHCR country representative Saber Azam at a news conference in December.

MIDIMAR officials estimate that at least 245,000 Rwandans could be still living as refugees across 20 countries in the world with a large number of them believed to be in DR Congo.

Ministry's budget estimates

The majority of current Rwandan refugees left the country as a result of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and some 3.4 million citizens have since been repatriated.

Unlike in the current fiscal year when MIDIMAR had planned that 20,000 former refugees would be repatriated and integrated into society even though about 4,800 have come home so far, it has planned for 12,000 returnees in the next financial year.

"We plan for these numbers but they could increase or decrease because returnees come back on a voluntary basis. All we pledge is that the government will afford to reintegrate every Rwandan who will return," Minister Mukantabana said.

MIDIMAR has asked parliament to approve slightly over 42 million Rwandan francs in line with reintegrating the returnees during the next fiscal year and also asked the Ministry of Finance to plan for standby funds just in case of a higher influx of returnees.

In total, the disaster management ministry has asked the Government to allocate slightly over 4.5 billion Rwandan francs for its operations in the next fiscal year, which will also include the management of thousands of foreign refugees hosted in the country, as well as the reduction of risks for natural disasters and response when they strike unexpectedly.

Source: The New Times website, Kigali, in English 18 May 17


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The Spectator


March 25, 2017


Our duty to refugees;
Our global system for aiding refugees dates from the 1940s - no wonder it's broken


BYLINE: Paul Collier


SECTION: FEATURES


LENGTH: 1689 words


The civil war in Syria, and the resulting displacement of half the population, has been the tragedy of our times. We cannot turn our backs on the ten million people who have been forced to flee their homes. Every decent society knows this and knows that it's our moral duty to come up with a workable way of helping the refugees. But while the scale of the displacement is substantial, it is not unmanageable. The 21st century should be capable of dealing with such catastrophes and we must prepare ourselves actually to do so.

To rise to the challenge, we need to combine the instinctive compassion that mass suffering arouses with the dispassionate analysis necessary to craft an effective response. We need the heart supported by the head. The growing humanitarian crisis has come about because we've deployed one without the other. Our response has veered between the heartless head and the headless heart, and the results have been calamitous. 

Paul Collier and Kevin Watkins from Save the Children discuss how to make aid work again:

We all, by and large, agree that we have a duty to help refugees. We have a duty of rescue, but what does that entail? The standard example in moral philosophy is of the child drowning in the pond. We, as passers-by, have an unequivocal duty to pull the child out. We are not entitled to protest, 'Where are the parents?' or, 'Why isn't there a fence?' Similarly, the child is not shouting, 'I demand my rights!' It shouts 'Help!' Having pulled the child out, we should then use our best endeavours to get it dry, and to return it safely to its parents. What, then, is the equivalent for a displaced family? The common duty is to do what is reasonably possible to restore normality.

So here's the crucial question: what, beyond safety itself, are the critical elements of normality for a Syrian refugee? The entire international refugee support system has presumed that the answer is food and shelter. It is structured to deliver them in the most efficient organisational form - camps.

But is this really the right response in 2017? The system was designed to cope with the displaced of post-war central Europe, many of them Germans who had fled the Russians, or Jews freed from the concentration camps. While they were in transit, food and shelter were indeed what they needed. But what about today? It's true some refugees still need temporary humanitarian support - but for most the priority is quite different.

Refugees nowadays do not have the luxury of a short-term solution. The problems they are fleeing are likely to last for a very long time. Imagine yourself in their position, displaced with your family. Would you really resign yourself to years in a refugee camp, living off food tokens, housed in a converted container? Most Syrians, indeed most refugees globally, choose to ignore the whole international support system. They head for the cities and try to find work there, even if they have to do it illegally. Understanding why they do this is not difficult. Their priority, just as yours would be, is to restore autonomy.

The refugee system is the apex of international humanitarian provision. UNHCR, and its penumbra of similar organisations, are designed for care. Like all welfare programmes, theirs treats people as passive recipients. Inadvertently, it infantilises. That so many refugees forgo this care, preferring the struggle of earning a living beneath the official radar of regulations that prohibit it, is testimony to the heroism of the human spirit. We shouldn't, even with the best intentions, crush that spirit. We should do what we can to make autonomy less grim.

For Syrian refugees we can do a lot. The duty of rescue towards refugees applies to all societies in a position to help, but this 'principle of solidarity' is complemented by comparative advantage: each society should concentrate on contributing that which it is best placed to provide.

Neighbouring countries are usually best placed to provide the physical location for safe haven - they are the easiest to reach and often speak the same language. When Nazi Germany turned on its Jewish citizens, it was the duty of the rest of Europe to provide proximate safe haven. Since 2011, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon have been in the same position with regard to the Syrians. The question of admitting refugees to Britain today may soak up much of the political attention, but it's not the way to restore normality or autonomy to these millions of people.

Our comparative advantage - the way in which we can help most - is obvious. We are much richer than the neighbouring haven countries, and so should pick up the bulk of the tab, which in fact we're doing: the £1 billion donated by the British government is almost as much as contributions from the rest of Europe put together. Our businesses should be generating the jobs that refugees could do in the neighbouring 'haven' countries.

Unfortunately, the duty of rescue towards refugees has been badly misunderstood. For the first four years of the Syrian conflict, Europe essentially denied that it had such a duty. Only when a small minority of refugees in safe haven in Turkey began to take their chances of migrating to Europe did the question get posed. Almost inevitably, the incipient influx shrivelled the question to 'Do we let them in?' In the process, a moral duty around which all could readily have united (bar the 1 per cent of any society that is psychopathic) was transformed into the most divisive and ugly issue in politics: 'Should Muslim migrants be welcomed?'

Inevitably, this rapidly degenerated into the familiar polarised conflict between those who regard themselves as occupying the moral high ground of human decency, and those who regard themselves as mounting a desperate defence of their homeland.

The key confusion has been to conflate refugees with migrants. Refugees, by definition, are people who didn't choose to be migrants: they wanted to live at home but their home became unsafe. Migrants are people who seek a better life. Migrants go to honeypots - dream locations can readily be ranked by their desirability. Refugees do not go to dream locations; they are seeking proximate havens. All of the top ten destinations for refugees are themselves countries of emigration. All are poor countries in disorderly neighbourhoods.

Migrants consciously embrace the prospect of living in a new society. The recent injunction of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, to 'act normal or leave' is an ethically reasonable requirement of those who choose to come, and one that most migrants are willing to meet. But because the goal of refugees is to restore normality, they have not chosen to embrace a new society. On the contrary, their priority is likely to be to hang on to the culture of their own community.

Even after the defeat of the Nazis, few of the Jews who survived the Holocaust hoped to go back to Germany: the right objective was permanent resettlement. But most of today's refugees do hope to return to their homes. Individuals in danger of persecution will always need a haven and we must have effective processes to provide one. But the image of the persecuted individual is long outmoded as representative of the typical refugee. Most refugees are groups fleeing disorder or famine. They seek to restore normality, not build a new life in an alien society.

A humane international response would be to encourage this entirely reasonable desire, which means not 'bringing them here' or packing them into stagnating camps, but helping them to find work; helping them get on. In the years while they are in havens, our priority should be to restore the autonomy and community that are the bedrocks of normality. In havens and in post-conflict societies, our firms, not our NGOs, will be the critical organisations. Entrepreneurs, not lawyers, will wield the critical skills.

Of course, it is sometimes possible to turn a refugee into a migrant, if the lure is sufficient. This is what happened when northern Europe briefly opened its borders in 2015. What hit the media were those images of thousands of people on the move. What was ignored was that the vast majority of Syrian refugees stayed put in the neighbourhood havens. While the mass flight out of Syria had been demographically unselective, the more modest rush to Europe was highly selective. Contrary to the media images, which focused on women and children, it was 70 per cent male. Because of the high cost of buying a place on a boat run by people-smugglers - more than the annual income of the average Syrian, to be paid in cash - those reaching Europe were the affluent.

And most crucially, as with all migration from poor countries to rich ones, the strongest incentive was for the highly educated. Less that 5 per cent of Syrians have come to Europe, but my co-author Alex Betts and I estimate that this group includes something between a third and a half of all Syrians with university-level education. These are the very people who will be needed to rebuild Syria. Despite the vocabulary, post-conflict 'reconstruction' is not primarily about pouring concrete; it is about renewing organisations. Instead of fussing over whether these educated Syrians will integrate into European culture, we should be enabling and encouraging them to retain their links with home.

There are the beginnings of an awakening about all this. In October the World Bank approved its first refugee loan - for job generation for Syrian refugees in Jordan. And at last there is innovation: the bank has also just won authority to use aid to bear some of the financial risks facing firms in fragile states.

So this is the real answer for refugees, not tents and food but autonomy and community. It's what you would want in their position. In asking the development agencies to scale-up and integrate the new mechanisms for generating jobs for refugees with those for speeding post-conflict recovery, it would at last become possible to meet our true international duty of rescue. In the process we should free ourselves from the lazy trap of fitting the present into the past.


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:26 PM GMT 


Donald Trump refugee ban: UN condemns President's bar on asylum and entry from Muslim-majority countries;
Warning comes after President calls for Christian refugees to be given priority


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 811 words


The United Nations has condemned Donald Trump's ban on refugees and order to stop Syrians and travellers from six other Muslim-majority countries entering the US amid mounting international anger.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organisation for Migration called on the new President's administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, a right protected by international law.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement program is one of the most important in the world," the two agencies said in a joint statement. 

"The longstanding US policy of welcoming refugees has created a win-win situation: it has saved the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have in turn enriched and strengthened their new societies."

The UN also cautioned Mr Trump against any move to give preferential status to particular nationalities or religions after his executive order called for minority religious groups to be fast-tracked.

He announced his support for the prospect of Syrian Christians being given priority for asylum in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).

When asked if Christians would be given special status, he replied "yes", adding: "They've been horribly treated... everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians.

"And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them."

The UNHCR and IOM urged the new administration to continue its work with the UN and other agencies to ensure "vital" resettlement programmes for people fleeing conflict and persecution, whatever their background.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race," a spokesperson said.

"We will continue to engage actively and constructively with the US Government, as we have done for decades, to protect those who need it most."

Mr Trump has suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days as part of measures he claimed would "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

His order additionally banned Syrian refugees indefinitely until "significant changes" are made, and halved the annual cap on refugees to 50,000.

The President also signed an executive order on Friday that will suspend travel visas for anyone from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US for at least 90 days.

He claimed his administration needed time to develop more stringent screening processes for refugees, immigrants and visitors.

The order will affect people from "countries of particular concern", expected to include Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

It provoked outcry from NGOs working to stem the worst ever global refugee crisis, with more than 65 million people forced to flee their homes.

Amnesty International warned the move could have "catastrophic consequences", saying some of the worst fears about a Trump presidency were already being realised.

Salil Shetty, the group's secretary general, said: "These men, women and children are the victims of the same terror President Trump claims he wants to fight against. The irony beggars belief."

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Mr Trump's "harmful and hasty" decision would impact thousands of innocent people, mostly women and children, awaiting resettlement to the US.

"In truth, refugees are fleeing terror - they are not terrorists," said IRC president and CEO David Miliband.

Help Refugees, a British charity working across camps in northern France, Greece and the Middle East, said news of Mr Trump's order was "devastating".

"Refugees are, by definition, people seeking sanctuary from some of the most horrific circumstances and it is the duty of compassionate and progressive nations to accept their fair share," a spokesperson said.

"Banning refugees on the basis of their religious beliefs is abhorrent."

It came months after global outcry over the Republican's campaign pledge to implement a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States".

Around 25,000 refugees were resettled in the US between October and the end of 2016 under the UNHCR's programme for the most vulnerable, the agency said.

According to the Pew Research Centre, the numbers of Muslim and Christian refugees from all countries entering the US were around the same last year: 37,521 Christian refugees entered the US during 2016, with 38,901 Muslim refugees entering in the same period.

Before being approved for resettlement by American authorities, refugees undergo an in-depth process that includes up to 36 months of vetting - including biometric screening - by 12 to 15 government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and intelligence services.


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The Guardian(London)


April 10, 2017 Monday 9:04 PM GMT 


Australia urged to accept fresh intake of Syrian refugees;
Refugee advocates including Oxfam urge second quota as number forced from homes passes 5 million


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


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Australia should announce another extraordinary additional humanitarian resettlement of refugees from the conflict in Syria, refugee advocates say, as the civil war in the country descends - again - into the illegal use of chemical weapons and the number of people forced from their homes by the conflict passes 5 million.

The quota for Australia's initial additional resettlement of 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq - external to its annual humanitarian intake of 13,750 - has been filled.  

All 12,000 visas have been assigned, according to the latest federal government figures, and more than 10,400 refugees have arrived in the country as part of the program.

Related: Malcolm Turnbull tells Russia to pull Bashar al-Assad into line after US missile strikes

Oxfam Australia's chief executive, Dr Helen Szoke, said that, "considering the success" of Australia's resettlement of the initial 12,000, and the ongoing outflow of refugees fleeing the conflict, the Australian government was well-placed to resettle more people.

"The international community seems intent on watching on as millions of people are stuck between the rock that their country has become and the hard place that exile offers them," she said.

"Oxfam calls on rich countries to show their support for Syria's neighbours that have welcomed these refugees and to resettle at least the most vulnerable 10% of Syrian refugees by the end of 2017."

A former Australian ambassador to Syria, Bob Bowker, said Australia was in a position to accept more refugees from the conflict in that country.

"I would like to see Australia doing much more to accept Syrian refugees that have been assessed as such and provide more support in local communities to assist their settling into Australia."

Bowker, plenipotentiary to Damascus from 2005 to 2008, said "the Australian community will benefit" from accepting more refugees - particularly those that are well-supported in their initial months in the country - and that the experience of the current cohort was that younger refugees adapt better, and more quickly, to their new country.

But he said Australia needed to accept refugees from the conflict on the basis of those in most acute need of protection, not on any sectarian division.

"Our response needs to be based on our common humanity, not on the basis of religious affiliation."

Australia's one-off additional resettlement program, announced by the then prime minister, Tony Abbott, in September 2015, has been widely hailed as a success, though it has not been without controversy.

Related: Malcolm Turnbull says al-Assad's 'war crimes' disqualify him from future role in Syria

Initially, Australia's pace of resettlement lagged well behind comparable countries such as the US and Canada. In the same 12 months those countries had settled 10,000 and 30,000 refugees under additional intakes respectively, Australia had accepted just 2,000.

There were also concerns that Australia, in identifying persecuted minorities for resettlement, had preferenced Christians over refugees of other religions.

Both Iraq and Syria are Muslim-majority countries and, while Christians in those nations face religious persecution, Muslims, both from sectarian minorities and majorities, are also significantly persecuted.

There was concern that, once in Australia, too many refugees were being resettled in too few areas : in particular Fairfield and Liverpool in Sydney's west, Hume in north-western Melbourne and Logan, south of Brisbane.

In February, the Fairfield city mayor, Frank Carbone, said his council had resettled one fifth of all of Australia's humanitarian migrants last financial year. Nearly 5,000 refugees moved into the area, the equivalent of an entire suburb's population.

"More funding needs to be provided locally for better coordination of services and to ensure job creation, housing, health and youth services are adequate," he said.

Governments, state and federal, responded, with additional funding for resettlement, health and education services.

The federal government has sought to reform and streamline its humanitarian settlement program, to prioritise integration and independence.

" Central to this reform is improving English, education and employment outcomes, ensuring humanitarian arrivals have the best chance at thriving in Australia," the assistant minister for social services, Zed Seselja, said.


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Prospect


April 13, 2017


How to fix the refugee crisis


BYLINE: Alexander Betts


LENGTH: 1081 words


More people are displaced around the world than at any time since the Second World War. Bashar al-Assad's latest chemical atrocity in Syria provides one more reminder of why that is, and with climate change the numbers will grow. Two thirds relocate within their own countries, but many must cross a border to survive. Meanwhile, the willingness to offer refuge is collapsing. The rise of populist nationalism has made an open-door policy untenable. Humanitarian budgets are being cut, with Donald Trump threatening to slash UN spending. Major refugee hosting countries-from Kenya to Lebanon-have begun to close their borders.

Can we reconcile these competing trends? The European refugee crisis offered a test case for our policies and they failed. Thousands died. Pronouncing "Wir schaffen das"-we can do this-in 2015, Angela Merkel briefly opened Germany's doors and, six months later, U-turned by effectively conspiring with Turkey and the EU to close the Balkan and Aegean Sea routes to Syrians. 

Even more drowned in 2016 than 2015, and in 2017 the total is fast approaching 1,000 with 146 lost in a single boat from Libya in late March. In Greece last year, several refugees froze to death. Germany now faces the generational challenge of integrating hundreds of thousands of Syrians, 90 per cent of whom were unable to find jobs in their first year. Meanwhile, even though only 0.2 per cent of Syrian refugees were in the UK, thanks to shambolic policies, the EU "Leave" campaign could make great play with such slogans as "Breaking Point." It did not need to be this way. Providing refuge should be a manageable task. There are 20m international refugees, a modest number in the context of a global population of over 7bn. Furthermore, the challenge is concentrated in a small number of countries; a quarter of all refugees are, for example, Palestinians.

The problem is that we have lost sight of what refuge is about. For Europe it signals fear. For Turkey and Kenya it signals cost. The issue has become bound up with toxic debates on migration and globalisation. Both progressive and reactionary voices conflate refuge with the right to migrate. The debate became about whether we should open Europe to large numbers of Muslim migrants. This, though, was a distortion.

To address this, we need to restore refuge to its rightful place and understand what it is for, and how we can fulfil its requirements. Refuge is not about migration. Refugees need access to a safe haven, where their lives are restored to normality as quickly as possible. There is no absolute legal or ethical right to migrate. Even for refugees, the right to migrate is contingent on the need to access a safe haven.

Most refugees do not want to migrate. They are part of the population that chose not to move until crisis struck. Movement to Europe became necessary for Syrians only after too little was done to ensure safe havens nearer home. Syrians began moving to neighbouring states in 2011, but it was from late 2014-after restrictions were introduced in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey-that significant numbers crossed the Aegean. The tragedy is that for every £1 of public money donor states spend on an asylum seeker who reaches Europe, we spend less than 1p on a refugee in a neighbouring country. It is no wonder that in Turkey, home to more refugees than any country in the world, less than 10 per cent of refugees receive any assistance.

Refuge should be about three simple tasks. First, it entails a duty of rescue. Immediate requirements are safety, food, clothing and shelter. But that is not enough. The default response is still to build camps, which offer life-saving basics, but are dehumanising; residents are barred from work, and get stuck there for decades. Kenya's Dadaab camps opened in 1992 and still host 350,000 Somalis, who can't lawfully work or leave.

Second, autonomy. This is mainly about jobs: enabling people to support themselves. The right to work matters for dignity-it can also enable refugees to contribute to their host states and acquire skills to rebuild their own post-conflict societies. Sadly, with few exceptions such as Uganda, the right to work is severely restricted, largely as host states fear the competition in labour supply.

Third, refuge should include a route out of limbo. People should not be refugees for too long. Ideally, they should go home. Three years of uncertainty may be reasonable; a decade is not. But routes out of limbo are poorly conceived. Rich countries offer a small number of resettlement places, to protect the most vulnerable or make themselves feel good; but they do so without adequate coordination. Resettlement would ideally enable those who are still stuck in limbo beyond a designated cut-off point to be settled in willing third countries. Labour migration, student visas, and family reunification can complement resettlement here.

Safe haven, however, can and should be chiefly focused on the developing regions of the world that host 90 per cent of the world's refugees and on the 10 countries that host 60 per cent of all refugees.

The challenge is to provide incentives for the neighbouring countries to offer the right to work, and to encourage businesses to invest in bringing jobs to both refugees and hosts. During the 1990s, European money enabled Mexico to develop its Yucatán Peninsula through offering economic status to Guatemalan refugees; Uganda provides self-reliance to its refugees, who now number over a million, with documented economic benefits to both the refugees and their hosts. Pilots are under way in Jordan and Ethiopia to support refugee access to work while contributing to national development. Such approaches require economic support and political brokerage: skill sets that are under-valued by the big humanitarian agencies.

If we get our policies right, onward movement becomes a last resort. A functioning refugee system should entail commitments that all decent people can agree on, based on our common humanity. Refuge is about getting development policies right in a small number of countries. Wrested back from complicating and extraneous debates on globalisation and the right to migrate, we can begin to re-imagine a refugee system that reconciles refuge with democracy.

Alexander Betts is professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs at the University of Oxford. He is co-author

(with Paul Collier) of "Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System" (Allen Lane), which is out now


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The Guardian(London)


May 16, 2017 Tuesday 9:09 PM GMT 


Revealed: year-long campaign to make conditions harsher for Manus refugees;
Exclusive: Documents show how the Australian government sought to drive refugees and asylum seekers from its detention centre in Papua New Guinea


BYLINE: Ben Doherty and Nick Evershed in Sydney and Behrouz Boochani on Manus Island


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 1537 words


For more than a year, camp managers and security staff have waged a campaign to make Australia's detention centre for refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island as inhospitable as possible, leaked documents reveal.

A plan drafted in early 2016 outlines moves to coerce those recognised as refugees into leaving the detention centre and accepting resettlement in Papua New Guinea, while pushing asylum seekers to abandon their protection claims and return home.

Documents obtained by the Guardian acknowledge that many felt unsafe in the Manus community, would face violence and danger if forced out and had been "institutionalised" during their detention.

The detention centre on the PNG island is one of Australia's two offshore holding centres - along with the other on the Pacific island of Nauru - for asylum seekers and refugees.  

Australian Border Force and PNG immigration officials announced this week the demolition of the Manus detention centre would begin this month, and every detainee within would be removed - forcibly if necessary - by 31 October.

Under the confidential plan to coerce people to leave, refugees were to be separated from "transferees" - those who had not been formally recognised as refugees.

The documents, from camp manager Broadspectrum and security contractor Wilson, reveal efforts to push those recognised as refugees to accept relocation to the East Lorengau transit centre, and ultimately resettlement in PNG, while persuading those without refugee status to abandon their claim to protection and go home.

The document says: "Conditions for refugees at East Lorengau refugee transit centre should be more attractive than for refugees at Lombrum RPC. Conditions for refugees at the RPC should be more attractive than conditions for transferees."

Transferees, who cannot be resettled in PNG, would be moved to a compound at the western end of the detention centre because "it does not have air conditioning". Camp managers also mooted imposing a smoking ban to encourage refugees to accept resettlement in the community.

The documents from inside the Manus Island detention centre reveal that the Australian government understood there were serious risks to opening up the centre, risks highlighted by a shooting rampage at the camp on Good Friday by "drunken soldiers" after a dispute about the use of a soccer pitch.

One plan mooted was to forcibly remove refugees and asylum seekers from the detention centre into the transit centre in a single day.

Planning documents that proposed "moving residents into accommodation with less amenity than they currently have" forecast the forced removal raised an "extreme" risk of violence and protests, and warned of the potentially "catastrophic consequences" of using the PNG police, whom Australian authorities describe as "not trained" for the relevant tasks.

The documents raise the possibility of "extreme" outcomes, including that the commander of the naval base - where the detention centre is housed - "does not support the concept of an open centre given it is in the middle of the Navy base"; and that Manusians, already affronted by the imposition of 1,000 men with whom they have been forced to share their small, resource-poor island, are wary of, if not outright hostile towards, the new arrivals.

"The community considers the refugees as a threat," planning documents say. "The community targets asylum seekers to either harm them or steal from them."

For both cases - the navy commander's possible response and the community reaction - the officials say there is a 50% likelihood of the scenarios occurring.

The Australian government-contracted managers running the detention centre have been aware from the outset that the move to push people out - without a plan for their ultimate resettlement - would be distressing for those detained.

"Many cohort members have forged friendships under very difficult circumstances thus creating support networks," one document says. "Some groups even have gardens but in the main they have created a space to call their own.

"It is not 'home' but it is the next best thing, it is what they have become used to and moving these individuals around at any time will elevate the tension across the MRPC."

Despite this, Broadspectrum's planning suggests force would be used to move people into the new camps.

"If they [detainees] fail to comply, the police will remove them either to their new compound (peaceful), to the MAA (resist), police station (violent)."

After the PNG supreme court ruled on 26 April 2016 that the detention centre was " illegal and unconstitutional ", the detention centre was partially opened.

All of those detained remain behind the three-metre steel fences of the detention centre, and are not free to leave of their own volition, but refugees are allowed to take scheduled buses into Lorengau township. They are not permitted to leave Manus.

A subsequent ruling by the court found that the detention centre " legally" no longer exists, despite 861 men still being held there. Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection stills regards the centre as operational.

Only 36 men have agreed to being resettled in PNG over the four years of the detention centre's operation.

Since the supreme court ruling a year ago, attempts have been made to further reduce numbers in the camps, which continue to operate under Australian control and Australian laws.

Pressure is being increased upon asylum seekers to abandon their claims for protection - they are offered inducements of up to $30,000 if they agree to return home; while forced deportations of those found not to meet protection obligations are occurring with increasing frequency, with successive national groups - Nepalese, Lebanese, Vietnamese - targeted.

Australia also brokered a controversial deal with the US for it to take an unspecified number of refugees from Manus and Nauru. Officials from the US departments of state and homeland security have been on the island assessing which and how many refugees it will accept for resettlement.

But there is no guarantee of how many - if any - refugees the US will accept from Australia's offshore camps. The figure could be as low as zero, or a handful judged to have passed America's " extreme vetting ". The Australian government has conceded that the US deal will not clear the camp - it expects a " balance " of refugees to be left on the island.

Inside the detention centre, despite the reforms to "open" the centre and the looming deadlines for its closure, the refugees held there say life is becoming, day-by-day, more repressive and inhospitable.

Unlike the centre on the Pacific island of Nauru, which holds families, women, and children, all the detainees on Manus are men.

As certain national groups are targeted for deportation, those without the "protection" of refugee status grow increasingly fearful they will be next.

Several refugees have been assaulted in Lorengau, including two men who were attacked by a gang wielding an iron bar.

On Good Friday, after a dispute about the use of a naval base soccer pitch near the detention centre, a mob of PNG naval personnel ran riot, trying to storm the detention centre, and shooting at refugees and staff hiding inside accommodation blocks. There were reports that a PNG navy vehicle tried to ram the gates of the centre.

The clashes, refugees said, were reminiscent of the attacks of the February 2014 riots, when police and local men overran the detention centre - murdering Reza Barati by dropping a rock on his head, shooting one man and slitting the throat of another. More than 70 refugees and asylum seekers were seriously injured during three days of violence.

"They tried to kill us, like they tried to kill us before," one refugee told the Guardian after the Good Friday attack.

Many refugees, despite being granted the restricted freedom of a bus ride to the town of Lorengau, refuse to the leave the detention centre because they do not feel safe.

Related: Australia must end 'fiction' it does not control Nauru and Manus centres, Senate inquiry finds

"We are scared about the locals as well because we don't know when the locals will be attacking. They are always threaten, 'We will attack, my people will attack.' This is another fear which is inside of us."

Another said: "Manus is just a bigger prison."

One man inside the detention centre, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears retribution, said despite being formally judged to have a "well-founded fear of persecution" in his home country he felt under constant pressure to accept resettlement in PNG or abandon his protection claim and return home.

"PNG management, all the camp managers, they are all trying to pressurise us to go back to our countries, even when they are trying to resettle us in PNG. They not want to resettle us in PNG.

"They are trying to traumatise us and torture, to send us back to our home countries, and torturing us by their way, slowly, slowly they are killing us from minds and physically torturing us inside, the mark isn't showing on our bodies, but we are dying. Our health is growing very worse, mentally sickness is going high level, everything is bad but they still put pressure on us."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 11:01 AM GMT 


Ministers say child refugee scheme they are closing early 'incentivises' children to become refugees;
Amber Rudd said saving the children would be a 'pull factor'


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 626 words


The Government has defended its early closure of the child refugees scheme, arguing that the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe.

Last year ministers said they would accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees but in a statement, snuck out during the Brexit debate yesterday, the Home Office announced it would be taking just 350.

In an urgent question in Parliament this morning Labour's refugee taskforce spokesperson, Yvette Cooper, branded the measure "shameful" but ministers defended the move. 

Read more

Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn

"The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," Amber Rudd said.

"The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach."

Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 includesa demand for the Government to make arrangements to relocate and support a "specified number" of unaccompanied child refugees from Europe to the UK.

Ms Rudd said she was "proud" of the Government's policy on the issue. Later, when told children were returning to the camps in Calais, which were cleared last year, she said: "Perhaps it is because they think they could continue to go to the UK. Does it help them? It does not. What would help those children is if they could have their claims processed in France."

Read more

Government backtracks on pledge to take Syrian child refugees

Child refugees 'neglected' in French accommodation centres

Child refugees in Serbia risk freezing to death as temperatures drop

Hundreds of child refugees in Calais 'have UK asylum claims rejected'

One in three child refugees missing since Calais demolition

Ms Rudd insisted that the scheme was "not closing" but merely that it would not take in as many children as had been suggested in Parliamentary debates.

The Government conceded the child refugee scheme last year after a campaign by Lord Dubs, a former Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis in the 1930s as part of the Kindertransport scheme.

However the Government attracted bad publicity for the scheme after a media campaign against the children by right-wing tabloid newspapers at the end of last year. The newspapers claimed that some of the refugees in the scheme did not look young enough to be eligible for it.

Ms Cooper said: "Once those 350 children are here, that's it, it is closed. Where does it say in the Hansard debate that I have here from our debates in the Dubs amendment that we will only help lone child refugees for less than six months. Where does it say that instead of the 3,000 that Parliament debated we will only help a tenth of that number?

"Where does it say that when we get the chance we will somehow turn our backs once again. It doesn't because we didn't say that at the time. The Home Secretary knows what she is doing is shameful."

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: "The worst thing about this Government's failure to step up to the totality of the refugee crisis is the children.

"How does she live with herself leaving thousands of people, members opposite can jeer, leaving thousands of children, subject to disease, people trafficking, squalor and hopelessness?"

Charities hit out at the Government's claims about the scheme. Steve Symonds, director of Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights programme, said: "The Home Secretary has this horribly wrong. By restricting its commitment to providing a safe route out of deprived, demeaning and dangerous situations elsewhere, the Government will only exacerbate the risk that these children fall victim to traffickers and other abusers."


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City A.M.


February 16, 2017 Thursday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Founders not scroungers: There's a business case for welcoming refugees


BYLINE: Maximilian Yoshioka


SECTION: OPINION; Pg. 18


LENGTH: 921 words


AS THE legal battle rages on around Donald Trump's chaotic travel ban and moratorium on refugees, you could be forgiven for thinking that the West faces an existential threat unparalleled in its history.

Yet as politicians rush to placate and at times inflate public fears about the negative impact of refugees on jobs, public services and national security, a growing body of research strongly suggests that refugees - far from being passive welfare claimants - create businesses and jobs wherever they go. Instead of accelerating the West's economic decline, refugees might just be a part of the solution.

Forced to flee from violence and persecution, countries accept refugees for humanitarian reasons. Nevertheless, there is a convincing economic rationale for welcoming them with open arms. 

Throughout history, people fleeing destruction and persecution have contributed hugely to their adoptive countries. From the Huguenots who arrived in England in the seventeenth century bringing with them expertise in textiles, watchmaking, carpentry and science, to the Jewish diaspora that escaped war-engulfed Europe to America's great benefit, and the Cuban refugees that have become inseparable from Miami's culinary and cultural identity, nations have long reaped the benefits of harbouring those with no place else to go.

Fast forward to today, a succession of devastating wars in the Middle East has led millions to flee in search of refuge, mostly to other countries in the region, but also to Europe and North America. Yet despite both academic research and the historical record suggesting otherwise, voters in many developed countries are alarmed by what they see as an influx of welfare scroungers or, worse, possible terrorists. This has led to a political reluctance to take in greater numbers, and has meant that countries are missing out on a potentially dramatic boost to their cultural and economic prosperity.

This is not to say that refugees do not face a whole host of challenges once they arrive in their host countries. While many bring valuable skills and education - particularly true of the current wave of Syrian asylum seekers - finding regular employment poses substantial difficulties.

Despite many having had successful careers back home, refugees often struggle to get hired in the formal economy. While the reasons vary - from language barriers, unrecognised qualifications and extended unemployment during the asylum period, to uncertainty around working rights and even blatant prejudice - the outcome is the same: unemployment and, frequently, destitution. Of those refugees that do find jobs, over half feel overqualified for them.

In response to this frustrating underutilisation of skills, talent and experience, some see entrepreneurship as the solution. Unlike a traditional job, being an entrepreneur enables a refugee to circumvent the hiring process and pursue a passion or idea on its own merits.

As a vehicle of social mobility less determined by social standing or cultural origin, entrepreneurship is often an ideal career path for individuals without any roots or connections in their new country. The resilience a person acquires in the process of leaving his or her home, livelihood and culture may also prepare them for the challenges of starting and running a new venture.

Take Turkey, where over the past five years Syrian refugees have set up over 4,000 businesses, bringing with them $220m in capital and making up over a quarter of all new foreign-owned firms established annually.

Or consider pioneering research carried out in Uganda by Oxford University professor Alexander Betts, who found that the presence of refugees from neighbouring countries dramatically boosted local purchasing power, employment and human capital. In the capital city of Kampala, 21 per cent of refugees run businesses that employ other people.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, meanwhile, shows that refugees make twice as much money from their own businesses as people arriving on skilled and family visas. And a recent feature in the Economist highlights some of the successful businesses started by refugee arrivals in Germany.

Here in the UK, official government data reveals that refugees are the most likely to be self-employed of all migrant groups (with migrants as a whole more likely to be entrepreneurs than the native-born). This corroborates recent research by the Centre for Entrepreneurs which found that foreign nationals start more companies per head than the UK-born.

From Michael Marks of Marks & Spencer and Rashmi Thakrar of Tilda Rice, to Adnan Medjedovic and Edin Basic, two exiled Bosnians who founded thriving UK gourmet pizza chain Firezza, examples abound of refugees setting up successful companies in this country. As the government debates and articulates its policies towards refugees, it would do well to remember this fact.

Instead of seeing refugees as a oneway burden on the economy and the state, we need a different vision that celebrates their potential to improve and rejuvenate our societies - as entrepreneurs or otherwise. This isn't wishful thinking - the evidence supports it - but it will require drawing attention to inspirational success stories, reframing the negative narrative around refugees, and supporting initiatives that help fulfil their potential.

£ Maximilian Yoshioka is lead researcher at the Centre for Entrepreneurs.

In Turkey, over the past five years Syrian refugees have set up over 4,000 businesses, bringing with them $220m in capital


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Scotsman


February 9, 2017 Thursday


Kenyan court blocks closing of world's largest refugee camp


BYLINE: Tom Odula


LENGTH: 559 words


A Kenyan court has ruled that the government must not close the world's largest refugee camp and send more than 200,000 people back to war-torn Somalia. 

The decision eases pressure on Somalis who feared the camp would close by the end of May.

Kenya's internal security minister abused his power by ordering the closure of Dadaab camp, Judge John Mativo said, adding that the minister and other officials had "acted in excess and in abuse of their power, in violation of the rule of law and in contravention of their oaths of office".

Rights groups Amnesty International, Kituo cha Sheria and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights had challenged the government's order to close the camp.

The group welcomed the ruling, saying it affirmed Kenya's legal obligation to protect people who seek safety from harm and persecution.

"Today is a historic day for more than a quarter of a million refugees who were at risk of being forcefully returned to Somalia, where they would have been at serious risk of human rights abuses," the rights group's Muthoni Wanyeki said in a statement.

Kenya's government quickly said it will appeal against the ruling.

"Being a government whose cardinal responsibility is first to Kenyans, we feel this decision should be revoked," spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.

The judge called the order discriminatory, saying it goes against the Kenyan constitution as well as international treaties that protect refugees against being returned to a conflict zone.

President Uhuru Kenyatta's government has not proved Somalia is safe for the refugees to return, the judge said, also calling the orders to shut down the government's refugee department "null and void".

Somalia remains under threat of attacks from homegrown extremist group al-Shabaab.

Some Kenyan officials have argued that the sprawling refugee camp near the border with Somalia has been used as a recruiting ground for al-Shabab and a base for launching attacks inside Kenya. But Kenyan officials have not provided conclusive proof.

US President Donald Trump's temporary ban on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries, including Somalia, had put added pressure on the Dadaab refugees.

Last weekend, about 140 of the Somali refugees who had been on the brink of resettling in the United States were sent back to Dadaab instead.

Said Abuka, a community leader in Nairobi and a refugee for 22 years, said the court ruling would help the Somali refugees.

Newborn babies could not be registered as refugees because of the shutdown of Kenya's refugee department, he said.

"After months of anxiety because of the camp closure deadline hanging over their heads, increasingly restricted asylum options and the recent US administration suspension of refugee resettlement, the court's judgment offers Somali refugees a hope that they may still have a choice other than returning to insecure and drought-ridden Somalia," said Laetitia Bader, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Al-Shabaab has carried out several attacks on Kenya, which sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants.

The attacks include the September 2013 attack on the Westgate mall that killed 67 people and the 2015 attack on Garissa University that killed 148 people, mostly students.

Kenya is currently building a fence along its 435-mile border with Somalia, but has completed only around two miles so far.


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FinancialWire


June 19, 2017 Monday


New displacement figures: 65.6 million people forced to flee


LENGTH: 583 words


OSLO, Norway -- Uganda received the largest number of new refugees last year, more than half a million people. "The system protecting refugees will collapse if we do not step up our support to countries like Uganda. The richest and most stable countries from Europe to the US do their uttermost to keep refugees away. At the same time, they are not adequately funding reception of refugees in poor host countries," said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council. 



65.6 million people were displaced due to war and persecution at the beginning of 2017, according to new displacement figures launched by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Monday. For the fifth year in a row, the number of people displaced worldwide continued to increase from an already historically high level.

"The refugee crisis continues unabated behind the walls and barriers Australian, US and European leaders have erected. It may have disappeared from their view, but remains a stain on our global conscience," said Egeland.

In the shadow of the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq, conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and South Sudan forced millions of people to flee their homes.

South Sudan, the world´s fastest growing refugee crisis, has by now forced 1.9 million people to flee across the border. About half of these are currently finding safety in Uganda. Despite this, the country has received only 17 per cent of the money needed to provide the most basic support to refugees and host communities so far this year. This week, world leaders meet in Kampala for a Solidarity Summit on Refugees, where they are expected to pledge additional support to countries hosting large numbers of refugees.

"About 2,000 people crossed the border from South Sudan into Uganda each day over the last twelve months. Borders must be kept open, but we cannot expect a country like Uganda to shoulder the entire bill," said Egeland.

He calls on all countries to step up to the challenges the world is currently facing:

"The historic high displacement figures must foster more dedicated work for political solutions, increase funding to meet humanitarian needs, and bring a larger willingness among all countries to take their share of the responsibility."

"If we fail, we will be faced with a more unstable world, where the alarming high displacement figures will only continue to increase," said Egeland.

Facts:

- 65.6 million people were displaced due to war and persecution at the beginning of 2017.

- 40.3 million were internally displaced, according to figures from NRC's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). In addition, 25.4 million people had sought refuge outside their own country, according to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

- The number of people forced to flee has increased with more than 50% over the last five years, up from 42.3 million in 2012.

- Uganda received 532,725 new refugees last year, and was the country receiving the largest number of refugees worldwide. Most fled the conflict in South Sudan.

- All in all, more than 737,000 people fled the conflict in South Sudan last year. Only Syria witnessed a larger number of new refugees, 824,000.

- Turkey was the country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world, with 3.1 million, followed by Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Pakistan.

Sources: UNHCR, IDMC

Distributed by APO on behalf of Norwegian Refugee Council.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 26, 2017 Thursday 11:39 AM GMT 


Donald Trump considering 120-day ban on refugees entering United States, claim leaked documents;
US President to temporarily suspend allasylum applicationsandban Syrian refugees indefinitely,in the name of 'national security'


BYLINE: Charlotte England


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 819 words


Donald Trump is considering banning refugees from the United States for 120 days, according to leaked documents believed to be draft executive orders.

All applications for asylum should be placed on hold, while the secretary of state reviews procedures to ensure no admitted refugees jeopardise national security, the documents said.

Meanwhile, applications from Syrian refugees will be suspended indefinitely, until President Trump reverses the ban. 

Read more

Anonymous Nasa officials set up 'rogue' Twitter feed to resist Trump

Trump says torture 'absolutely works' in first major interview

Muslim leaders hold emergency rally before Donald Trump's Muslim ban

The draft order, entitled "Protecting the Nation From Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals", was among six documents handed to a journalist at

Vox

by a source on Tuesday.

It

stipulates that after the 120-day period,

refugees will continue to be banned if they come from countries that

do not have "adequate safeguards" against terrorism, as determined by the secretaries of state and homeland security and the director of national intelligence.

The list of banned countries include Syria, with the secretary of state instructed to instead provide

"safe areas" inside the war-torn country and the surrounding reg

ion where Syrian nationals who have been displaced can reside.

On Wednesday, President Trump signed two bills that matched "word-for-word" the text of two of the documents received by

Vox

, spurring the news site - which was initially sceptical of the authenticity of the documents - to publish the remaining four, which relate to immigration, terrorism, and refugee policy.

According to

Vox

, the source said all of the documents were going through formal review and had not yet been approved, so may appear with considerable changes.

The draft says the total number of refugees allowed in fiscal year 2017 will be reduced from 110,000 to 50,000, and preference will continue to go to "religious minorities" - in effect this is likely to be Christians facing persecution in the Middle East.

A spokesperson for charity Help Refugees said: "Help Refugees are deeply concerned by the news that Donald Trump plans to sign executive papers on Wednesday to ban almost all refugees from entering the US, and to prevent visas for anyone from Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries with predominantly Muslim populations.

"Nearly two thirds of all refugees resettled in 2015 were accepted by the US, so the impact of this will be devastating."

Help refugees said: "Refugees are, by definition, people seeking sanctuary from some of the most horrific circumstances and it is the duty of compassionate and progressive nations to accept their fair share. Banning refugees on the basis of their religious beliefs is abhorrent

"Halting resettlement of refugees will not, contrary to Trump's assertions, make America safer. On the contrary it will force people into the hands of traffickers and make the vigorous systems currently in place to vet refugees entering the US completely defunct."

The draft executive order, which can be viewed as Mr Trump's "Muslim Ban" translated into a policy document, would also suspend all entry into the United States from "terrorism-sponsoring countries" and countries of concern. The vast majority of these countries - including Iran, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - are predominantly Muslim.

If the order comes into effect, security officials will also be instructed to evaluate which countries do and do not provide enough information about visa applicants for the US to vet them for terrorism risk, and other countries could be added to the ban-list.

Travel to the US could become more difficult for most visitors, with the draft bill instructing the secretary of state to "immediately suspend the Visa Interview Waiver Program", making interviews mandatory forall non-immigrant visa seekers.

Officials will also be toldto speed up implementinga biometric enty-and -xit system.

Of the four purported draft bills, a second - "Protecting Taxpayer Resources by Ensuring Our Immigration Laws Promote Accountability and Responsibility" - also takes aim at refugees.

Theorder, which seeks to reduceimmigrantsaccess to the welfare state, calls for a report on the cost of the entire Refugee Assistance Program - the program by which the US helps refugees get settled, obtain jobs, and learn English.

Theother twodraft bills completing the package handed to

Vox,

area sweeping proposed order to reduce the scope of legal immigration to the US, and a bill to end amajor Obama programme that has effectively protected more than 740,000 unauthorised immigrants from deportation since 2012.

The bills published on Wednesday start the process of building President Trump's infamous "wall," and make it easier for immigration agents to arrest, detain, and deport unauthorised immigrants at the border and in the US.


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MailOnline


May 31, 2017 Wednesday 12:41 AM GMT 


Spy boss backs away from controversial claim there's 'absolutely no link' between Muslim refugees and terrorism in Australia - after commentators identified multiple connections to extremist attacks


BYLINE: STEPHEN JOHNSON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 612 words



Australia's chief spy has clarified his controversial statement debunking the link between refugees and terrorism. 

Duncan Lewis, the director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, made the statement last week only two days after a coroner concluded that Iranian refugee Man Monis' 2014 Lindt cafe siege in Sydney was a terrorist act.

Monis had also converted from being a Shiite Muslim to a more extremist brand of Sunni Islam, which favours sharia law. 

Scroll down for video 

But despite this evidence, Mr Lewis told One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in a Senate hearing there was 'absolutely no evidence' of any link between refugees and terrorism.

On Wednesday the ASIO chief told ABC radio: 'The refugee program is not the source of terrorism in Australia.'

It comes after conservative commentators, including Andrew Bolt, cited several cases where refugees had committed terrorist attacks. 

Tens of thousands of refugees had come to Australia over the past decade or so and 'a very few of them' had become subjects of interest to ASIO or being involved in terrorist planning.

'I'm not denying that,' Mr Lewis said.

'I've not said that there are no terrorists who have not been refugees or not being the sons or daughters of refugees born in this country.'

The reason they were terrorists was down to the violent extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam that they adopted.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, their transition to radicalisation started with them absorbing at a very young age 'very objectionable and brutal' material online produced overseas.

'It's not because they were refugees,' Mr Lewis said.

But he conceded 11 of the 12 thwarted terror incidents in Australia since December 2014 involved Muslims.

Mr Lewis said he had no intention of being contemptuous - as some commentators have suggested - of Senator Hanson.

'The point I was making was we need to stick to the facts with this particular argument,' he said.

However, his statements have aroused controversy considering that Monis was a refugee while the teenagers killed by police were the sons of refugees.

Farhad Jabar, a 15-year-old boy who killed accountant Curtis Cheng outside the New South Wales police headquarters at Parramatta in 2015, came from an Iranian refugee family.

He had also reportedly been radicalised by the Bukhari House Islamic Bookstore at Auburn, in Sydney's west, which is run by the hardline Sunni group Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah.

Meanwhile Numan Haider, who was 18 when he stabbed two Melbourne police officers in 2014 before being shot dead, was from a Afghani refugee family. 

Attorney-General George Brandis is standing by Mr Lewis, arguing the ASIO chief was asked about Middle Eastern refugees coming to Australia and bringing the threat of terrorism.

'The point he made is that Australia's refugee program is not the source of the terrorism problem,' he told The Australian.

Labor is also supporting Mr Lewis, saying he had 'called it as it is'.

'He's making what is absolutely apparent clear,' opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles told Sky News.

'Radical Islam is the driver in respect of terrorism that we have seen - that's where people need to focus.'

Mr Marles said some people were seeking to twist facts.

'And that's what's going on here, to demonise refugees, to put them in the frame on this issue, I think is an absolute disgrace.'


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Gloucestershire Echo


January 27, 2017 Friday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Middle East refugee stories are heart-rending;
Cheltenham Activists Network


SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 11


LENGTH: 696 words


IN recent weeks, Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees and Global Justice Gloucestershire have shown films and presentations at deepspaceworks in Charlton Kings and the Exmouth Arms in Bath Road which tell stories from the mouths of victims themselves.

'Not who we are' features interviews with five Syrian women who escaped to Lebanon.

One woman from Aleppo was locked up without trial for a month, and witnessed torture of male prisoners. When released, she left Aleppo before things got much worse. 

Another woman with five children felt forced, just to survive, to marry off her oldest daughters aged 16 and 14.

She was very stressed and guilty about this but felt there was no alter native.

In one of the talks we were told about a woman who had almost gone mad after her husband had been killed and her life destroyed; so much so that she had been unable to continue looking after her children.

It was only many months later, with psychological treatment and the help of a community self-help group, that she made some sort of recovery and was able to resume contact with her surviving family.

In the film 'We cannot go there now my dear', Palestinian refugees from Syria to Lebanon talk about their desperate lives.

In 1948, when the Jewish state of Israel was carved out of Palestine, many Palestinians were evicted to make way for the new settlers.

They were dispersed to new refugee camps in several countries in the Middle East.

These camps were supposed to be temporary but have turned out to be per manent.

All these Palestinian refugees dream of one day returning to their homeland.

Life in some camps was and is grim, but in others, for example Yarmouk in Syria, it was tolerable, with refugees able to leave the camp and even find work. This was until the Syrian calamity spilled into the camp with ISIS taking control. Then Russian and Syrian army forces carried out lengthy sieges and relentless bombings.

People starved to death. Eventually many Palestinian Syrians couldn't stand the situation any longer and made their way to Lebanon.

The film features interviews with a number of these twice-over refugees, ranging from old men to housewives to children.

All had heart-rending tales featuring deaths of their relatives and friends.

Another film 'Precarious Trajectories' describes the hair-raising Mediterranean crossings and mass drownings which have occurred, again from the point of view of survivors and families of the victims.

Anyone who thinks these refugees take the decision lightly to leave their countries of origin and make hazardous sea-crossings or land routes to Europe should watch these films. It might give them a different perspective.

Given the appalling situation in Syria and other countries in the Middle East, many people feel that the offer by former Prime Minister David Cameron to house in the UK 20,000 refugees over five years was derisory, even disgraceful, compared to the million taken in by Germany and to the many thousands of refugees still in Greece and Italy.

The British government has a moral duty to take in more refugees given its partial responsibility for the situation.

The reasons for war are complex but there can be no doubt that the bombings of Iraq and Libya urged by Tony Blair and David Cameron respectively contributed to the intolerable situations faced by those fleeing the wars.

Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees is one organisation which is doing what it can to help, and there are other local groups involved too.

People have taken food and clothing to the refugee camps at Calais and Dunkirk.

Organisations in the town and in Gloucester are involved in liaising with local government and GARAS (Gloucester Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) who have been charged with overseeing the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Gloucestershire, and to help those who are now settling here to integrate and learn English. The situation is ongoing.

Find Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees on Facebook.

David G Evans Global Justice Gloucestershire www.globaljustice.org.uk.

Anyone who thinks these refugees take the decision lightly to leave their countries of origin and make hazardous sea-crossings or land routes to Europe should watch these films...


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


June 17, 2017 Saturday


Ugandan opposition links president to regional conflicts


LENGTH: 924 words


Text of report in English headlined "Besigye blames refugee crisis on Museveni" published by leading privately-owned Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor website on 16 June; subheadings as published

Opposition leader Kizza Besigye has warned the international community against lavishing President Museveni with praise over his handling of refugee issues, but instead called for scrutiny of his military adventures in neighbouring countries, saying they trigger instability.

"In helping these refugees, the international community must be very clear in how they deal with the Ugandan regime; they should be clear to treat the [ruling National Resistance Movement] junta as the arsonists, not the ones who are extinguishing the fire," Dr Besigye said in reference to regional conflicts and next week's international refugee solidarity conference in Kampala. 

The Museveni-led government, he told a press conference yesterday, should be "condemned, isolated and that is what will discourage other arsonists in the region."

The government, however, dismissed Dr Besigye as sour grapes and speaking for the sake of "political expediency".

"We should not allow Besigye to distort history for his political expediency," said Col (retd) Shaban Bantariza, the deputy executive director at Uganda Media Centre, a government communication clearing house.

He added: "The UN, all other people and [international] agencies respect Uganda for being the first country on the continent to host one million refugees."

Refugees in Uganda

Uganda currently hosts 1.2 million refugees, according to UN refugee agency figures, and three-quarters are South Sudanese nationals displaced by renewed fighting since 2013.

The South Sudan refugees are being hosted in camps in Uganda's Arua, Yumbe, Moyo and Adjumani districts that are closer to the restive northern neighbour and where natives across borders share heritage.

They live on land provided at no cost by host communities, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) alongside other humanitarian organizations offering food and non-food relief while Uganda government is responsible for security, maintaining law and order.

At yesterday's press conference in Kampala, Dr Besigye said it was an "insult" to both refugees and their hosts to see international players fraternise with Mr Museveni.

The president, he alleged, is a warmonger in the region, citing his decision as the commander-in-chief to deploy the Ugandan military in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997-2003 and, before that, to fight alongside the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) until South Sudan gained independence.

When war broke out in Juba, the South Sudan capital in December 2013, UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Force] deployed troops, saying it needed to protect Ugandans and other foreign nationals as well as avert a looming genocide. Some, however, interpreted it as an attempt to prop up President Salva Kiir's government then threatened by his sacked Vice-President Dr Riek Machar.

That power contest exploded into a civil war, cooling and accelerating, according to the engineering of protagonists, regional and international actors. Dr Besigye, who has stood and lost four elections to President Museveni, said the Ugandan leader is "confusing the international community" and "posturing as a champion of refugees" by presenting himself as a "partner in solving the problem, that he is primarily guilty of creating".

He also blamed the antagonistic positions of other regional neighbours for exacerbating the fighting in South Sudan, Africa's youngest nation born amid mass goodwill and ruined by greed of its leaders.

Next week's solidarity conference on refugees, which is intended to raise two million dollars, will be attended, among others, by the United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

Mr Guterres, as the then head of the UN refugee agency, visited Uganda in 2005 to flag off repatriation of South Sudan refugees, and he will be returning 12 years later, next week, as the UN secretary-general to confront a worse refugee crisis.

Land-locked Uganda has hosted refugees, mainly from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia, for decades and some of its citizens, particularly those in West Nile, fled to then Sudan and Zaire (now DRC) in their time of need.

"We hope and really pray that the secretary-general of the United Nations [as well as] the UN refugee agency will not insult the refugees who are suffering and certainly the people of Uganda who are hosting; shouldering this burden, by coming to masquerade with arsonists as their partners in this matter," Dr Besigye said.

Internal conflict

Meanwhile, Dr Besigye has renewed calls for an independent inquiry into the conflicts in the country arguing that the role of the state in the killings in Kasese, Buganda, and in the contested Amuru-Adjumani border area of Apaa and other places discredit it from making any such investigation.

He said there was "interesting" and "intriguing" similarities exhibited by the hacked bodies in Apaa and Kasese incidents.

"One wonders if this Apaa thing is part of the wider terror campaign that is engrossing our country," he said, adding: "It would appear there is some kind of pattern that is emerging driven by all kinds of circumstances but with the same kind of result chilling fear in our population."

He said he was alarmed by the reports of conflict in Bukedi sub-region [in eastern Uganda] between the Jopadhola and the Itesot.

Source: Daily Monitor website, Kampala, in English 16 Jun 17


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telegraph.co.uk


February 16, 2017 Thursday 6:06 PM GMT 


In Uganda, refugees are being given plots of land to help rebuild their lives


BYLINE: By Anna Dubuis


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 709 words


Her husband's killers did not say one word. Mary watched as government soldiers ambushed their home and slaughtered him. In the darkness she fled, a baby in one arm and a toddler in the other, walking for four days until she reached the Ugandan border . The 25-year-old lost track of her two older children in the chaos.

"I still don't know where my other children are, I don't know if they are with the rebels, or killed," she says, six months later. 

Mary is one of 734,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled the country's civil war and sought safety in Uganda, most of whom arrived when violence erupted last July.

In 2016 more refugees entered the east African nation than the total of all refugee arrivals by sea into Europe.

The numbers coming into Uganda have continued to rise as fighting intensifies between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former vice-president Riek Machar, and hopes for peace in South Sudan fade.

A woman feeds her two-week-old baby who is was brought to a health centre in BidibidiCredit: Anna Dubuis

In January the influx soared to 52,000 after violence spread to the previously peaceful south. In the first eight days of February, 35,600 refugees entered.

Until last July, the dusty grassland now hosting Bidibidi was barren except for the occasional mud and thatched hut.

But when refugees flocked in their thousands, Uganda's other refugee camps were overwhelmed and Bidibidi was opened.

Initially planned for 40,000 South Sudanese, within three months that figure had quadrupled and Bidibidi became one of the world's largest refugee camps. It now hosts more than 272,000 people, most of whom are women and children.

Uganda has been applauded for having one of the most generous refugees policies in the world.

Within 48 hours of crossing the border, refugees are given a plot of land and materials to build a home, and food rations and household items.

They have access to healthcare and education, are allowed to work and start businesses, and can travel freely.

"We save lives first but we also liberate the potential of these people. It is that rehabilitation process we look at as the biggest responsibility," says Robert Baryamwesiga, the government settlement commander of Bidibidi.

Of the $251million (£200m) requested by the UN to cope with the South Sudanese refugee situation in Uganda, only 36 per cent has been received.

But Uganda's open-arm policy is at breaking point.

Of the $251million (£200m) requested by the UN to cope with the South Sudanese refugee situation in Uganda, only 36 per cent has been received.

Water and food rations are stretched, medical care is basic and schools are lacking.

"The number of refugees is overwhelming. The little medicine we have does not provide," said Dr Henry Acidri, working at a health centre constructed out of tarpaulin and wood.

While refugees have the right to start businesses, few have the finances to do so.

The government intends on allocating agricultural land for communities to grow crops, but the soil is infertile and the little subsistence farming already taking place yields little.

Meanwhile ethnic tensions in the camp are simmering as rival tribes the Dinka, mostly supporting President Kiir, and Nuer, supporting Machar, along with some of South Sudan's other tribes, totalling around 60, live alongside each other.

 A truck full of refugees and their belongings arrives at Goboro border reception centre in Uganda

"When the Dinka move away, that's when I can go back. They are the ones killing us," says Charity, 30, a mother-of-six who arrived in September.

With no peace deal in sight for South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, Uganda is set to far exceed the current projection of 925,000 refugees by the end of 2017.

The UN warned in December that genocide was imminent and South Sudan was "on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war which could destabilise the entire region".

Refugees in Bidibidi spoke of friends, family and neighbours, including children and pregnant women, being lined up and killed, of women being raped, and of homes looted and torched.

At a women's centre in Bidibidi, a group of mothers told how they delayed leaving South Sudan because they believed the UN would intervene.

"That's why everyone died," says one.


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FinancialWire


April 21, 2017 Friday


Dunedin celebrates refugee resettlement anniversary


LENGTH: 566 words


http://www.dunedin.govt.nz

One year since the first Syrian families began settling in Dunedin as part of the refugee resettlement programme, advocates are lauding the city's response in welcoming the new members of our community.
 



The first group of people arriving through the refugee quota arrived in Dunedin on 22 April 2016, following the city's successful bid to become a refugee resettlement city in 2015. Since then a total of 205 former refugees have settled here, most of them Syrian.

The Dunedin Refugee Steering Group, comprising representatives from community groups, organisations, and government departments, has led Dunedin's approach to welcoming and supporting the former refugees.

Steering Group Chair, Cr Aaron Hawkins, says the response from Dunedin people in welcoming the former refugees to the community has been overwhelmingly positive.

"Red Cross has been responsible for much of the logistical support around the resettlement process and they have been inundated with donated goods and people wanting to help."

Red Cross Southern Humanitarian Services manager, Sue Price says that Dunedin has welcomed its newest residents with open arms.

"We have been overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity of locals during the last year. It's allowed people to do something positive at home to address some of the things they see happening around the world.

"Our resettlement programme is enabling people fleeing conflict to lead lives in peace and it is also providing Dunedin with diversity and people who have a lot to contribute. I have seen a lot of the families who arrived in the first intake engaging with the Kiwi community already and becoming Dunedin locals, I can't wait to see what they add to the city culturally and socially," she says.

Cr Hawkins says some former refugees have already found employment. However, the focus for many is learning English so they can work or go into further education or training.

Being a resettlement city has also created some challenges, particularly around language and ensuring services can meet the needs of former refugees.

"We are keen to see that if there are problems, they are short term ones and that we can work collectively to provide genuine and valuable support to former refugees," he says.

"People who have a refugee journey have been through hardships New Zealanders often cannot imagine. They have lost their homes, their family members, and to some extent their country. We want Dunedin to be a place of welcome and safety."

Cr Hawkins says the Steering Group will continue to closely consider the strategic benefits and implications of being a refugee resettlement city.

"For real and lasting community integration and connections to happen, it's important that we have a better understanding of the cultures of our new settlers and that they have opportunities to understand how Kiwis think, feel and live alongside each other."

As well as Red Cross and the DCC, Dunedin Refugee Steering Group includes representatives from the Ministry of Education, Southern District Health Board, Dunedin Multi Ethnic Council, English Language Partners, Housing New Zealand, Ministry of Social Development and Citizens Advice Bureau. Two people from refugee backgrounds will also be appointed as community representatives.

Contact details

Contact Dunedin Refugee Steering Group Chair on 03 477 4000.



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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 30, 2017 Thursday 4:21 PM GMT 


Syrian civil war: More than five million refugees flee conflict as global support for resettlement wanes;
United Nations says only half the places pledged by world leaders are available


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: MIDDLE EAST; Version:1


LENGTH: 892 words


More than five million men, women and children have now fled the Syrian civil war but the world's will to give refugees a safe home is waning, the United Nations has warned.

World leaders pledged to resettle 10 per cent of all Syrian refugees by 2018 at a meeting Geneva in March last year, but only half of the needed places have been made available.

Donald Trump has attempted to suspend what was the world's largest resettlement programme and border closures and restrictions are growing in Europe as more asylum seekers die attempting to reach the continent than ever before. 

Read more

Up to 146 refugees drown as boat sinks off Libyan coast

A record of morethan 5,000 migrants drowned, suffocated or froze to death in the Mediterranean in 2016 and almost 1,000 have already died this year.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the international community must do more to help those fleeing six years of brutal conflict in Syria.

"We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees," he said.

"To meet this challenge, we not only need additional places, but also need to accelerate the implementation of existing pledges."

A march calling for the British Government to resettle more refugees in central London on September 17, 2016. (AFP/

Getty

Images)

Mr Grandi said 250,000 out of half a million places pledged exactly a year ago were available, warning that efforts needed to be dramatically "accelerated".

He added that only the most vulnerable refugees were referred for resettlement by the UN, with the measure "giving refugees the opportunity to re-build their lives, but also enriching the communities that welcome them".

UN member states committed to increasing efforts to find homes for refugees as part of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants in September, but few new programmes have emerged.

Meanwhile, people continue to flee Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and other war-torn countries where conflicts look unlikely to end any time soon.

Save the Children said the international community had "utterly failed" to end the crisis.

Misty Buswell, the charity's director of advocacy for Syria, said: "More than a thousand children a day have fled their country every day for the past six years, and an entire generation is now growing up as refugees, forced from their homes and facing an uncertain future.

Former child refugee Lord Dubs says he cannot understand the Government shutting down child refugee program

"These are the children who will have to rebuild Syria once the war ends, and they urgently need our support."

She warned that many refugee families were unable to work and living without access to healthcare and education, with 750,000 Syrian refugee children are out of school.

Read more

Syrian children tell harrowing stories of death and destruction

"Even after six years this crisis is still getting bigger every day, and these children need our help now more than ever before," Ms Buswell said.

"Yet countries around the world are increasingly shutting their borders to children seeking refuge."

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that almost 1.2 million people will need resettlement in 2017, among whom 40 per cent are Syrians amid the biggest global crisis since the Second World War.

The agency said no specific incident caused the number of Syrian refugees to pass the 5 million mark, compared to 4.8 million a year ago, asanother 6.3 million people remain internally displaced inside the country.

David Cameron pledged that the UK would resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 but only 4,400 people had been granted protection by September.

The Government also committed to homing up to vulnerable children who had already reached Europe under the "Dubs amendment" but dropped the scheme after capping numbers at 350 in February.

It blamed local councils for failing to provide resettlement places, while defending the UK's record providing £2.3bn for refugees in Syria and surrounding countries.

Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, said the US has pledged to make 64,000 places available for Syrians and that efforts would continue amid court battles over Mr Trump's attempts to reduce the programme.

Turkey now hosts 2.97 million Syrians and the number is growing as enforcement of an agreement struck with the EU to reduce boat crossings continues.

The deal, which came into effect a year ago, has slowed crossings over the Aegean Sea but resulted in 62,000 asylum seekers being trapped in Greece, where a Syrian man was found hung this week.

Crossings over the central Mediterranean Sea have continued to rise as smugglers take advantage of lawlessness and conflict in Libya to detain migrants and launch them packed into flimsy dinghies.

The vast majority of asylum seekers now arriving in Europe are taken to Italy by rescue ships, but they have also crossed by land and sea to Spain, and a fishing boat carrying 91 Syrian refugees, including 42 children, landed in Cyprus on Wednesday.

More than 28,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe by sea this year - more than 23,000 to Italy and 4,000 to Greece.

Only 22 per cent of those currently arriving are Syrian, with 11 per cent from Afghanistan, 10 per cent from Nigeria and others from Iraq, Eritrea, Pakistan and sub-Saharan African nations.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 11:01 AM GMT 


Ministers say child refugee scheme they are closing early 'incentivises' children to become refugees;
Amber Rudd said saving the children would be a 'pull factor'


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 595 words


The Government has defended its early closure of the child refugees scheme, arguing that the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe.

Last year ministers said they would accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees but in a rambling statement snuck out during the Brexit debate yesterday the Home Office announced it would be taking just 350.

In an urgent question in Parliament this morning Labour's refugee taskforce spokesperson Yvette Cooper branded the measure "shameful" but ministers defended the move. 

Read more

Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn

"The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," she said.

"The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach."

She said she was "proud" of the Government's policy on the issue. Later, when told children were returning to the camps in Calais, which were cleared last year, she said:

"Perhaps it is because they think they could continue to go to the UK. Does it help them? Not it does not. What would help those children is if they could have their claims processed in France."

Read more

Government backtracks on pledge to take Syrian child refugees

Child refugees 'neglected' in French accommodation centres

Child refugees in Serbia risk freezing to death as temperatures drop

Hundreds of child refugees in Calais 'have UK asylum claims rejected'

One in three child refugees missing since Calais demolition

Ms Rudd insisted that the scheme was "not closing" but merely that it would not take in as many children as had been suggested in Parliamentary debates.

The Government conceded the child refugee scheme last year after a campaign by Lord Dubs, a former Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis in the 1930s as part of the Kindertransport scheme.

However the Government attracted bad publicity for the scheme after a media campaign against the children by right-wing tabloid newspapers at the end of last year. The newspapers claimed that some of the refugees in the scheme did not look young enough to be eligible for it.

Labour's Ms Cooper said: "Once those 350 children are here, that's it, it is closed. Where does it say in the Hansard debate that I have here from our debates in the Dubs amendment that we will only help lone child refugees for less than six months. Where does it say that instead of the 3,000 that Parliament debated we will only help a tenth of that number?

"Where does it say that when we get the chance we will somehow turn our backs once again. It doesn't because we didn't say that at the time. The Home Secretary knows what she is doing is shameful."

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: "The worst thing about this Government's failure to step up to the totality of the refugee crisis is the children.

"How does she live with herself leaving thousands of people, members opposite can jeer, leaving thousands of children, subject to disease, people trafficking, squalor and hopelessness?"

Charities hit out at the Government's claims about the scheme. Steve Symonds, director of Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights programme, said: "The Home Secretary has this horribly wrong. By restricting its commitment to providing a safe route out of deprived, demeaning and dangerous situations elsewhere, the Government will only exacerbate the risk that these children fall victim to traffickers and other abusers."


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FinancialWire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie in Nairobi, appeals for child refugees


LENGTH: 540 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie marked World Refugee Day 2017 visiting adolescent refugee girls in Nairobi.

Ms. Jolie met around 20 refugee girls, who are unaccompanied or separated from their parents and are now living in the Heshima Kenya Safe House and participating in a Girls' Empowerment Programme.
 



The girls have fled extreme violence or persecution in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, and Rwanda. Almost all have suffered sexual and gender-based violence, robbing them of their childhoods. Many have given birth after being raped, or are pregnant. They told the Special Envoy about their personal stories and their lives today.

Angelina Jolie said:

"Over half of all refugees and displaced people worldwide are women and children. How we treat them is a measure of our humanity as nations. On World Refugee day my only ask is that people consider the pain and suffering of young girls like these. Not only have they had to flee extreme violence or persecution, lost everything and witnessed the death of family members, but they have also had to face so much abuse and intolerance and hardship. They are doing their best to carry on, with minimal support trying to live lives on dignity against impossible odds. It was an honour to spend the day with them."

It was Angelina Jolie's third visit to Kenya, home to nearly 491,000 refugees from neighbouring Somalia, South Sudan, DRC, Burundi and other countries in the region. Most of the 67,000 urban refugees in Kenya struggle to survive on handouts from UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations, and many are struggling to recover from horrifying abuse and terror endured before or during their flight.

Among the refugees in Kenya are 101,713 from South Sudan, which has now become the biggest new factor in global forced displacement after the disastrous break-up of peace efforts in July 2016 contributed to an outflow of 737,400 people by the end of the year.

The Special Envoy said: "Kenya hosts close to half a million refugees and we at UNHCR are very grateful to the people and government of Kenya for that."

In all, Heshima Kenya's Girls' Empowerment Programme helps some 200 refugee girls, including those in the Safe House. They are provided with education, and training in a variety of skills to enable them to become self-reliant.

Benedict, who oversees the Heshima Kenya programme, described his motivation in helping the refugees: "When I see them, I don't see refugees, I see human beings who are suffering not out of choice but because of circumstances beyond their control."

With the option of resettlement scarce, Heshima Kenya focuses on helping the refugees to fully integrate within the Kenyan community. This approach is also being championed by UNHCR and its partners in international talks that aim to forge a new Global Compact on Refugees next year.

"When you empower them, you bring them dignity," Benedict said. "They don't need to rely on anyone. The Kenyan government can also start to appreciate them - as taxpayers, employers and consumers with purchasing power."

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



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FinancialWire


June 26, 2017 Monday


More than $ 350 million pledged for refugees in Uganda;
'A good start, we cannot stop,';
says UN chief


LENGTH: 663 words


A 'Solidarity Summit' for refugees hosted by Uganda has raised some $ 358 million in pledges, the United Nations announced today.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that it was a "good starting point" although the international conference was looking to raise $ 2 billion.
 



Hosted by President Yoweri Museveni and the UN Secretary-General, the Summit sought to rally international support for refugees and host communities in the form of donations, investments and relevant programmes, over the next four years.

Mr. Guterres noted that the World Bank and the African Development Bank had promised "innovative funding" for projects involving both refugees and the local communities.

"We cannot stop," he underscored, recalling that several of the participating countries agreed to put forward their pledges in the weeks to come. Uganda: Africa's fastest-growing refugee emergency

Uganda is hosting a little over 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers, some 950,000 of them are from war-torn South Sudan, according to estimates from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also a co-chair of the international conference.

Furthermore, perhaps 2,000 people a day are crossing the border into northern Uganda' Arua district. The majority are women and children who arrive exhausted and hungry, with little more than the clothes on their backs. Some of them even have their first meal at the Imvepi reception centre, after walking for days to reach safety, UNHCR field workers confirmed.

The mass influx has triggered a humanitarian emergency, what the Secretary-General described as the "biggest refugee exodus since the genocide in Rwanda."

The Government of Uganda, the UN team in in the east Africans country, including its humanitarian partners, are all struggling to respond to this emergency. The new arrivals need life-saving assistance such as water, food and health services.

In his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Solidarity Summit, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned that close to one-third of the people in South Sudan have been uprooted from their homes by the ongoing conflict.

"It's almost as if the country is emptying itself," he noted, while reminding the participants that South Sudan was the "world's newest nation."

Meanwhile, during Thursday's visit to the Imvepi refugee settlement, David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said his agency was struggling to provide three meals a day. "We need $ 100 million to feed these people for the remaining part of the year. We need the money and we need it now."

Mr. Beasley accompanied Mr. Grandi and Mr. Guterres to the settlement to hear about the challenges facing the refugees from South Sudan, as well as the host communities.

Uganda, through its Refugee Act of 2006, has a generous and progressive refugee policy which does not confine refugees and asylum seekers to camps and allows them to travel freely, own land, open businesses and go to school.

Earlier in the day, the UN chief said it was necessary to recognize that Uganda remained "a symbol of the integrity of the refugee protection regime" that unfortunately is not respected everywhere in the world, he stressed.

"Not all doors are open and not all refugees are accepted, and sometimes in countries richer than Uganda," he said.

Twelve years ago, Mr. Guterres reminisced, he was celebrating with the South Sudanese who were about to return home full of hope.

Now they were back in exile and for him, the conclusion was obvious: everything must be done to end the war in South Sudan.

At the conclusion of the Summit, after all the pledges were made, the Secretary-General, responding to a question asked by a reporter, drove home that point, emphasizing: "If there is one clear message from all the refugees that we met, it is that this conflict must stop. It is politically and morally unacceptable."



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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 23, 2017 Thursday 2:38 PM GMT 


Brexit and Donald Trump 'squeezing refugees out of spotlight', warns Keir Starmer MP as Dubs debate begins;
Shadow Brexit secretary warns compassion for refugeesbeing 'challenged in a way ithasn't for decades' as charities speak out for unaccompanied minors ahead of Commonsdebate on Dubs


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 1432 words


The urgency of the refugee crisis is being "squeezed" out of the political spotlight due to the dominance of discussion surrounding Brexit and Donald Trump, the Shadow Brexit Secretary has warned.

Keir Starmer, Labour MP and shadow minister for exiting the EU, said values of compassion for refugees were being "challenged in a way they haven't been for decades", and urged britons to reclaim the discussion and reassert values the UK has shown in the past towards people fleeing from conflict.

Speaking at a charity event on Wednesday organised by grassroots refugee organisation CalAid, a day ahead of a major cross-party debate on the Dubs Amendment,Mr Starmer said: "The values of everyone who is concerned about the refugee crisis are probably being challenged in a way they haven't been challenged for decades. We need to stand up for what we believe in.

Read more 

Young refugees plead for ministers to protect unaccompanied minors

UK closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m profit for smugglers'

Keir Starmer says Theresa May will be 'found out' on immigration

"The spotlight is no longer on refugees. The political space has been squeezed by discussion on Brexit and Trump and we need to reclaim it.

"Our history in the UK is a proud history in relation to refugees, and we should be proud of it and reassert those values.

We must fight for what we believe in in terms of the rights and freedoms of refugees."

In an interview with

The Independent

following the event, Mr Starmer, who has been tipped to be the next Labour leader, said the Dubs Amendment must be re-established, adding that while the numbers are important, the Government's decision to end the scheme was a "shocking" rejection of principles.

"Dubs needs to be reasserted and re-established. The principle of taking unaccompanied children from in Europe is really important," said Mr Starmer.

"It's one thing to argue what the number should be, but to say you're going to end the scheme altogether, to depart from the spirit of the Dubs Amendment, is simply shocking.

"I do understand the argument that the Government has got to have a realistic number. I do understand that you've got to say children you come to the UK need to be properly supported and therefore the number has to be realistic and achievable.

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

"But this is more than just the numbers which we were arguing about, this is the principle of whether we do it at all. That's what's been the most shocking aspect: the ending of the scheme full stop."

When asked whether he believed some people in the UK are less tolerant of refugees due to concern over existing problems within communities, Mr Starmer rejected the concept that large swathes of the country were intolerant, saying it was important to "match up both sides of the debate".

"I don't accept the proposition that people in the UK are intolerant or unfair, or don't want to do the right thing, whether it's in relation to refugees or other groups," he said.

"I think people in the UK feel that they're not being listened to and a whole host of other things, and we need to listen to what they're saying about that, but I'm not going to accept the proposition that we're not a tolerant and fair society.

"We need to recognise that people do have concerns about

elements of their lives in which they felt they didn't have the influence they thought they could have.

Those are real issues that need to be addressed.

"But

I don't think they are addressed by abandoning our values and our tolerance, and

we equally need to re-assert the obligations we have to refugees which are there as international obligations that we absolutely should adhere to.

"

I don't think it's easy, but w

e have to match up both sides of the debate."

The Labour MP's remarks came the day before a

debate in Parliament on the UK's

role in helping unaccompanied children in Greece and Italy

, which will see Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill asked to layout the Home Office's plans for ensuring children with a legal right to be in the UK are able to be transferred quickly and safely.

It will be Mr Goodwill's first full debate on this issue since a written ministerial statement announced the intention for the Dub scheme to end after having transferred 350 children. Last year, more than 30,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Greece and Italy.

Speaking ahead of the debate,

co-leader of the Green Party

Jonathan

Bartley

told

The Independent

the cancellation of the Dubs

Amendment was an "absolute scandal", and warned that vulnerable child refugees were being "lumped" together with economic migrants and even traffickers.

"What's happened in the last few weeks about the Dubs Amendment is an absolute scandal and it's so important that we make our voices heard. It's as if the refugees sleeping on the streets of Calais have been completely forgotten," Mr Bartley said.

"We are the fifth richest economy in the world. It is an absolute scandal that less than 50 miles from our coast is a refugee crisis.

Read more

Child refugees 'neglected' in French accommodation centres

"The whole frame politically at the moment is around sacrificing everything at the altar of freedom of movement. And that seems to include sacrificing the most vulnerable children.

"Traffickers, asylum seekers, refugees, economic migrants all seem to get lumped together in the same brackett, with no distinction made, and it is the children who are caught up in that storm of Brexit fallout.

"The debate has to go beyond making economic arguments, it has to be an appeal to people's emotions and hearts. It isn't just about compassion it's about basic human rights."

Refugee advocates and charities have also spoken out ahead of the debate about the importance not to dismiss the scores of homeless unaccompanied minors still in France, amid a discussion focused on refugees in Italy and Greece.

The night before Thursday's debate in the Commons, a "solidarity sleep-out" took place outside Downing Street, organised by charities help Refugees and Voices of refugees, aimed at speaking out for the rights of child refugees sleeping rough in France.

One of the organisers, Benny Hunter of Help Refugees, told

The Independent:

"The debate is specifically about kids in Greece and Italy, and we wanted to make sure the voices of children in France are not left out of that conversation.

"These are kids who have been ruled out or considered not eligible for the Dubs Amendment, or have had their appeals for family reunification rejected, sometimes on arbitrary grounds. Most importantly, they need an avenue to appeal that decision.

Dozens of people attended the 'solidarity sleep-out' outside Downing Street on Wednesday night to speak out for homeless child refugees in France (Tam)

Mr Hunter described a child he has been working with, now homeless in Paris, who was interviewed by the Home Office while living in the "Jungle", but has since heard nothing about his legal routes to the UK.

"I've visited his uncle and aunty in Leeds, and they are visibly related. They are distraught. They text and phone me regularly. I helped them write a letter to the Home Office, but we have heard nothing. It's very distressing," said Mr Hunter.

"The child also phones me, asking if he should go back to Calais. That's one story that I know but there are so many of these kids."

When the Dubs Amendment passed through the House of Commons last year following pressure on the Government from Lord Alf Dubs, it was hailed as a humanitarian success that would see 3,000 lone children from European refugee camps brought to the UK.

Read more

Charities unite in anger as government quietly scraps refugee promise

But no figure was agreed at the time, and two weeks ago the Home Office unexpectedly announced the scheme would end after 100 more children reached the UK, bringing total numbers to 350.

Faced with a furious backlash from human rights campaigners and other senior figures, the Government defended its decision arguing the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd also attributed the closure to a lack of local funding, a claim furiously disputed by several local councils who said they had written to the Ms Rudd to urge approval of more child asylum seekers.

Ministers have since announced the Home Office will review asylum applications from child refugees in France, after it emerged up to 400 unaccompanied minors had made their way back to Calais in recent weeks and were sleeping on the streets. It is unclear however how many of the decisions will be overturned.


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


May 12, 2017 Friday


Portugal government "very positive" about refugee programme


LENGTH: 585 words


Text of report by Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias website on 10 May

[Report by Valentina Marcelino: "Nearly One Third of Refugees Already Left Portugal"]

The government made a "very positive" assessment of the refugee reception programme and remained committed to taking in more.

The Minister [see below] said that it was "very positive" that 38 per cent of the refugees were now working or in vocational training. 

Out of the 1,306 war refugees taken in by Portugal since late 2015, 555 did not wish to stay in our country and left the programme bound for other countries. "It is always an option of the refugees to be illegal in other countries," said the Interior Minister, referring to the fact that those refugees cease to enjoy rights of protection when they leave Portugal.

Constanca Urbano de Sousa was speaking at a news conference yesterday afternoon at the office of the President of the Council of Ministers to make an "assessment" of Portugal's refugee reception programme. Also present at the meeting were Minister for the Prime Minister Eduardo Cabrita, Rui Marques, the chairman of the Refugee Support Platform (PAR), and Teresa Tito de Morais, the chair of the Portuguese Council for Refugees (CPR).

It was the first time that the government had acknowledged the number of departures -- 555 --, which meant that since the last count made by Diario de Noticias 15 days ago a further 81 refugees had left the country. Eduardo Cabrita said that "there are multiple reasons" for the phenomenon that has the technical name of "secondary movements," among which, said the Minister, was "wanting to join their communities in other countries."

In reply to a question from Diario de Noticias about whether the causes of the high rate of abandonment had now been identified and whether the lack of access to the labour and academic markets was one of them, the Interior Minister said that "the reasons are still under analysis."

Constanca Urbano de Sousa said that the "possibility" that the abandonments had been "incited" by a criminal network that led refugees to use Portugal as "springboard" to go to other countries "is under investigation." Police sources monitoring the phenomenon told Diario de Noticias that the security forces and services that form part of the Counterterrorism Coordination Unit and keep an eye on refugees' movements in our country had not been informed of any investigation or opening of inquiries.

PSD, BE Call For Assessment Report

Following the report in Diario de Noticias two weeks ago, the PSD [Social Democratic Party; main opposition] and the BE [Left Bloc] called on the government to assess the intake programme and identify the flaws in the process of integration that are affecting the escalation of departures.

Eduardo Cabrita was convinced that Portugal "continues to be a country of reference throughout Europe and recognized internationally for the way in which it has endeavoured to respond to this refugee crisis, mobilizing civil society, local authorities, and various institutions."

The Minister for the Prime Minister agreed that "secondary movements must be the object of analysis," highlighting that "the government is resolved to maintain the effort shown and the readiness to continue receiving more refugees." Eduardo Cabrita said that it was "very positive" that 38 per cent of the refugees were already working or in vocational training and that 94 per cent were learning Portuguese.

Source: Diario de Noticias website in Portuguese 0756 gmt 10 May 17


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Express Online


February 9, 2017 Thursday 9:50 PM GMT 


'I might have got in!' Nigel Farage backs Tory's policy to reduce entry of child refugees


BYLINE: Darren Hunt


LENGTH: 563 words


NIGEL FARAGE has backed Amber Rudd's child refugee policy as he claimed it was clear people trying to enter the UK were adults.

The former Ukip politician smashed claims that the UK were not letting in enough refugees as he argued that people entering the country were taking advantage of the system. 

In his furious tirade the LBC host battered the idea that Britain should open its door to all child refugees.  

The Government announced that 3,000 child refugees would we welcomed and rehomed in the UK under a resettlement scheme before the number was quickly slashed to 350 refugees overnight. 

Nigel Farage agreed with the Government's reduction of the figure as he said it was clear that the people trying to enter the country were not children. 

LBC·GETTY

Farage argued that the government uses the wrong system when letting lone child refugees into the UK Related articles Syrian refugee shouts Allah as he attacks man on bus in Germany We were NOT prepared for extent of the refugee crisis' German minister

He said: "I think one of the reasons Amber Rudd has cut the numbers overnight, is not  just because the French have said it's leading to trafficking. 

"It's because the first batches of people the people that we took in, clearly many of the weren't actually children. 

"In fact look at some of them, I think if I was to die my hair a bit darker, I might have got in."

Home Secretary Ms Rudd was forced to defend the Government's policy of cutting the number of child refugees allowed the enter the UK as she argued that Britain is not closing the door. 

GETTY

The government slashed the number of lone child refugees allowed in the UK overnight

However the MEP continued on his furious rampage in which he said the Government's policy of judging people coming into the UK was not good enough. 

He added: "The way that the Government does this, is our officials only challenge the age of child migrants if they look to be over the age of 25. 

"Well at 25, I was married, I had kids, a mortgage, and a job.

"So I think actually one of the reasons Amber Rudd was doing this is that many of the people, too many of the people, and whether that is five percent or 10 per cent or 20 per cent, but too many of the people who cam win the first batches of child migrants, clearly were not children. 

"I think that she was worried that the public would see, frankly they are being taken for a ride."

Farage finished by accepting that the UK should be allow refugees in need to come into the country, before he turned on the gigantic immigration levels, which he believes is impacting peoples opinions.

He said: "I have absolutely no problem with us being a civilised country that takes in genuine refugees, I have never ever had a problem with it.

"The difficulty is, because legal immigration is running at a net third of a million a year we've just had enough of the shire numbers coming into thcountry and we've closed our hearts, even to those who potentially might be genuine refugees.

"We are worried about people taking the micky out of the system, get legal immigration out of control, and then perhaps we can think properly about taking genuine refugees into Britain."

Related articles Hungary set to build SECOND FENCE on border in battle against migra... Ex-MP hits out after child refugee bill buried in Brexit debate Theresa May DEFENDS child refugee limit as 'right' for Britain


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thetimes.co.uk


May 8, 2017 Monday 4:00 AM GMT 


The next Government should do the right thing by refugees


BYLINE: Gonzalo Vargas Llosa


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 698 words


Since taking my post as Representative for the United Nations Refugee Agency in the UK in 2014, I have met hundreds of refugees and visited many communities hosting them up and down the country in a host of urban and rural settings.

Everywhere I have witnessed deeply moving scenes of civic engagement: local authorities going out of their way to welcome refugees; retired teachers giving free English lessons to the newcomers; universities offering scholarships to refugee youths; and local pupils helping refugee children with their homework. Every one of these kind actions is driven by the same motivation: to "do the right thing." 

In the run-up to the General Election on 8th June, UNHCR is urging the next Government to also do the right thing for refugees, through a set of specific, implementable actions.

First, we ask the new administration to resettle 10,000 refugees a year in Britain from war-ravaged regions. This would be a meaningful but realistic increase over the existing commitment, made in 2015, to receive 20,000 Syrians and 3,000 children at risk by 2020, welcome though that is. The new commitment should include Syrians as well as those fleeing wars or persecution in other countries.

Resettlement not only benefits needy refugees: it also helps to relieve a small part of the burden on those developing countries which have for years been sheltering millions of refugees, like Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Kenya and Tanzania.

Given that UNHCR estimates that the number of refugees in need of resettlement globally in 2017 is 1.2 million, what we are asking the next Government to do is relatively modest. Pulling together the different resettlement programmes would also offer operational efficiency, flexibility and cost savings.

Second, we urge the next administration to continue to show leadership in providing aid to millions uprooted by conflict, living in refugee camps and urban areas in the Middle East, Africa and beyond. For this to happen, the current commitment to spend 0.7% of national income annually on foreign aid must be maintained. Shattered lives really are being saved around the world by the British taxpayers' generosity.

Third, we ask the new Government to adopt a more generous approach to refugee family reunification. The current criteria are simply too restrictive and complex.

I have met countless refugees who suffer unnecessarily as a result of being separated from close family members. As one of them recently told me: "I wake up and then go to bed every day longing for my mother. How can I live in peace in the UK, while she is still in Zaatari?" The refugee was referring to the giant camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

For many refugees, the pain of separation remains the biggest obstacle to their successful integration in a new country.

In addition, the next Government should seek to reduce the number of asylum seekers that are detained. In 2016 alone, more than 13,000 were locked up. This figure is strikingly high.

While the conditions in the detention facilities are for the most part adequate, being detained can leave psychological scars that endure years after release.

This problem is exacerbated by the deeply worrying fact that Britain currently has no time limit on immigration detention. The cost of maintaining such a sizeable detention system is also extremely high.

There is a more humane and cost-effective option to immigration detention, and one that is compatible with national security concerns. In other countries in North America and Europe, for example, alternatives to detention - whereby, for example, the asylum-seeker is released back into the community under some type of regular supervision - have been tried with success.

Unlike the use of detention, such projects can help build or restore the trust of the individual in the asylum and immigration systems, and thus enhance cooperation. Such alternatives have also achieved high rates of voluntary return for failed asylum-seekers.

Britain has a rich history of welcoming those forced to flee, and UNHCR urges the next Government to do the right thing and ensure a fair and equal treatment for all refugees.Gonzalo Vargas Llosa is UNHCR Representative to the UK


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Daily Star Online


February 12, 2017 Sunday 9:50 PM GMT 


EXCLUSIVE: Human traffickers prey on refugees banned by Britain - Kids face rape and death


BYLINE: Jerry Lawton, Exclusive


LENGTH: 739 words


CHILD refugees as young as eight face rape and death after Britain shut them out.

Our investigators watched people traffickers descend on a camp in Dunkirk, France.

Youngsters played with skipping ropes among the wooden shacks at the La Liniere site.

At the same time traffckers arrived on a country lane 500 yards away to offer desperate migrants a perilous route into the UK. 

TIM MERRY

PREY: Children as young as eight, are the victims of human traffickers

A stream of cars arrived in a dead end behind a petrol station which the refugees use as a shortcut to shops.

Some men sat there for hours studying their mobile phones after approaching migrants coming to and from the camp.

Inside the site, women and children - including around 100 unaccompanied minors - are forced to have sex by traffi ckers in return for blankets, food or a passage to Britain, according to volunteers.

Last month the camp's women's centre was burned down in a suspected arson attack.

Children Refugee Crisis Migrant Syria Pakistan Turkey pictures

TIM MERRY

DEVASTATING: Groups of traffickers descended on the camp Refugee welfare worker

Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson said she would "never be the same" after her recent visit left her "so angry" because the "politics are incomprehensibly devastating". The UK shut the door on child refugees after taking in 350 - just 10% of the number MPs and aid organisations thought would be allowed to come to Britain.

Not one child from Dunkirk has yet been offered a home in the UK.

Forty refugees have died in the last 18 months trying to make the trip to Britain, according to refugee aid organisation Doctors Without Borders.

The youngest unaccompanied child they have helped was just eight.

TIM MERRY

ATTACK: A woman's centre was burnt down in suspected arson

TIM MERRY

DESPERATE: People turn to traffickers for help in crossing borders

The group's legal adviser Lucie Lecarpentier said: "The situation is very grave.

"If people are not being provided with proper shelter and have no prospect of safe legal passage they resort to smugglers and traffickers. Then their lives are in danger."

La Liniere, wedged between a railway line and motorway in the Dunkirk suburb of Grande-Synthe, opened a year ago to house up to 2,000 refugees.

Some of these people, who include lawyers, doctors and farmers from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, have perished trying to sneak into Britain under lorries and in the back of containers or trying to leap onto ferries.

TIM MERRY

INNOCENT: Children were seen playing in the camp

Traffickers who arrived outside the camp last week were offering passage to the UK for £2,000.

One refugee welfare worker said: "These criminals are just exploiting the misery and desperation of others.

"They don't care if the refugee survives or not as long as they have their money.

"They are paedophiles who will abuse children and rape any women they have control over, because they hold the refugees' only hope in their hands."

Migrant crisis

TIM MERRY

DEADLY: 40 refugees died over the last 18 months, trying to cross into Britain

The worker added: "The British government must share the blame.

"By cutting off the refugees' legitimate passage to the UK they have brought more traffickers to the camp."

On Saturday a 50,000-signature petition was handed to Prime Minister Theresa May objecting to the child refugee ban. French refugee charity Utopia56 is crowd-funding legal action against the UK government in a bid to overturn the move.

One volunteer co-ordinator at the Dunkirk camp told lawyers: "A 12-year-old girl was groomed in the camp by a man over twice her age.

"And a 13-year-old boy ended up returning to his home country having been raped."

Related articles Gary Lineker and Lily Allen join Trump protests as 34% of Brits BACK Muslim travel ban Up to 100,000 children at risk of being BRAINWASHED by ISIS jihadis in Europe Two migrants 'took turns to molest girls after trapping them in swimming pool slide'


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The Citizen Gloucester


January 27, 2017 Friday


Middle East refugee stories are heart-rending


SECTION: AGENCY:OTHER; Pg. 10-11


LENGTH: 669 words


IN recent weeks, Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees and Global Justice Gloucestershire have shown films and presentations at deepspaceworks in Charlton Kings and the Exmouth Arms in Bath Road which tell stories from the mouths of victims themselves.

'Not who we are' features interviews with five Syrian women who escaped to Lebanon.

One woman from Aleppo was locked up without trial for a month, and witnessed torture of male prisoners. When released, she left Aleppo before things got much worse. 

Another woman with five children felt forced, just to survive, to marry off her oldest daughters aged 16 and 14.

She was very stressed and guilty about this but felt there was no alternative.

In one of the talks we were told about a woman who had almost gone mad after her husband had been killed and her life destroyed; so much so that she had been unable to continue looking after her children.

It was only many months later, with psychological treatment and the help of a community self-help group, that she made some sort of recovery and was able to resume contact with her surviving family.

In the film 'We cannot go there now my dear', Palestinian refugees from Syria to Lebanon talk about their desperate lives.

In 1948, when the Jewish state of Israel was carved out of Palestine, many Palestinians were evicted to make way for the new settlers.

They were dispersed to new refugee camps in several countries in the Middle East.

These camps were supposed to be temporary but have turned out to be permanent.

All these Palestinian refugees dream of one day returning to their homeland.

Life in some camps was and is grim, but in others, for example Yarmouk in Syria, it was tolerable, with refugees able to leave the camp and even find work.

This was until the Syrian calamity spilled into the camp with ISIS taking control. Then Russian and Syrian army forces carried out lengthy sieges and relentless bombings.

People starved to death.

Eventually many Palestinian Syrians couldn't stand the situation any longer and made their way to Lebanon.

The film features interviews with a number of these twice-over refugees, ranging from old men to housewives to children.

All had heart-rending tales featuring deaths of their relatives and friends.

Another film 'Precarious Trajectories' describes the hair-raising Mediterranean crossings and mass drownings which have occurred, again from the point of view of survivors and families of the victims.

Anyone who thinks these refugees take the decision lightly to leave their countries of origin and make hazardous sea-crossings or land routes to Europe should watch these films. It might give them a different perspective.

Given the appalling situation in Syria and other countries in the Middle East, many people feel that the offer by former Prime Minister David Cameron to house in the UK 20,000 refugees over five years was derisory, even disgraceful, compared to the million taken in by Germany and to the many thousands of refugees still in Greece and Italy.

The British government has a moral duty to take in more refugees given its partial responsibility for the situation.

The reasons for war are complex but there can be no doubt that the bombings of Iraq and Libya urged by Tony Blair and David Cameron respectively contributed to the intolerable situations faced by those fleeing the wars.

Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees is one organisation which is doing what it can to help, and there are other local groups involved too.

People have taken food and clothing to the refugee camps at Calais and Dunkirk.

Organisations in the town and in Gloucester are involved in liaising with local government and GARAS (Gloucester Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) who have been charged with overseeing the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Gloucestershire, and to help those who are now settling here to integrate and learn English. The situation is ongoing.

Find Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees on Facebook.

David G Evans Global Justice Gloucestershire globaljustice.org.uk.


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:45 AM GMT 


Council on Islamic-American Relations to sue over Trump 'extreme vetting';
The advocacy group says Trump's executive order, which has prompted swift criticism, has an 'underlying motive to ban people of the Islamic faith'Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US


BYLINE: Paul Owen in New York and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1382 words


The Statue of Liberty would be weeping, Donald Trump was told on Friday, amid mounting condemnation of his announcement of draconian new "extreme vetting" measures for refugees seeking to come to the United States.

Related: Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US

Trump's plan would suspend the entry of immigrants and non-immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen for 90 days, ban refugees from Syria indefinitely, suspend all refugee admissions for 120 days, cut refugee numbers down to a maximum of 50,000 in 2017 (less than half the previous year's figure of 117,000), and prioritise refugee claims if the refugee is a member of a minority religion - a clear attempt to carve out an exception for Christians.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations immediately announced it would be filing a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the order "because its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States". 

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said CAIR's Lena F Masri. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani campaigner for girls' education who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban at age 15, said she was "heartbroken" that America was "turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work hard in exchange for a fair chance at a new life".

She added: "I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Yousafzai gave the example of a girl called Zaynab, "who fled wars in three countries - Somalia, Yemen and Egypt - before she was even 17". Zaynab received a visa to come to the US, she said, where she "learned English, graduated high school and is now in college studying to be a human rights lawyer".

"Zaynab was separated from her little sister when she fled unrest in Egypt," said Yousafzai. "Today her hope of being reunited with her precious sister dims."

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement he was "concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump".

Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said his great-grandparents came to the US from Germany, Austria and Poland and his wife's parents were refugees from China and Vietnam.

"The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that," he said.

He added: "Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation.

"We should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That's who we are. Had we turned away refugees a few decades ago, Priscilla's family wouldn't be here today."

Zuckerberg expressed a hope that Trump would not reverse Barack Obama's decision to allow undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children to work in the US.

Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader in the Senate, said: "Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon.

"Taking in immigrants and refugees is not only humanitarian but has also boosted our economy and created jobs decade after decade. This is one of the most backward and nasty executive orders that the president has issued."

Zoe Lofgren, senior Democrat on the House judiciary, immigration and border security subcommittee, said she was seeking "legal analysis" of Trump's executive order and would issue a "comprehensive review soon".

"It seems clear that the effects of today's orders will be discriminatory and isolationist," Lofgren said. "They are un-American, driven by xenophobia and will damage our nation's standing around the world."

She added: "Perhaps most troubling, today's executive order - issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less - recalls a dark episode in American history. Just over 75 years ago, a ship called the St Louis, carrying nearly a thousand Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, sailed so close to the United States that passengers could see the lights of Miami.

"But rather than welcome these refugees, America turned them away. Many of these Jewish refugees were killed by the Nazis when they were forced to return to Europe.

"Making sure that such a tragedy never happens again became the bedrock of US and international refugee and asylum law and policy. Mr Trump's actions today upend this foundational principle and endanger millions all over the world."

Earlier this week, Nihad Awad of CAIR said Muslims would be "the sole targets" of Trump's action.

"These orders are a disturbing confirmation of Islamophobic and un-American policy proposals made during the presidential election campaign," he said, as details of Trump's plans were leaked to the press.

"One of our nation's darkest moments was during [the second world war], when we turned away Jewish refugees seeking our protection. We cannot allow religious bigotry to effect our willingness and ability to welcome those fleeing violence and persecution."

Manar Waheed, a former political appointee for the Obama administration, told the Guardian Trump's order was a de facto ban on Muslims that would only serve to alienate key allies across the globe and millions of Muslims living in the US.

"National security and terrorism should be focused on facts of individuals, not blanket assumptions or presumptions or exclusions," said Waheed, who was deputy policy director for immigration at the White House domestic policy council from 2014 until the end of Barack Obama's presidency.

Related: 'Over my dead body': tribe aims to block Trump's border wall on Arizona land

"We're in this moment where Muslim communities are being pushed into the corners of our society... This is discriminating against people based on their faith and national origin".

David Miliband, president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said refugees were "fleeing terror - they are not terrorists".

"At a time when there are more refugees than ever, America must remain true to its core values," the former British foreign secretary said. "America must remain a beacon of hope."

He added: "America has the strongest, most successful resettlement program in the world. Certified by successive administrations, the US resettlement program makes it harder to get to the United States as a refugee than any other route. This is one of many reasons to deplore the hasty decision made today."

The US has probably the most intensive screening process in the world for refugees: it requires they register and interview with the United Nations, which then must refer them to the US.

Refugees who pass this test then interview with state department contractors and have at least two background checks; then they have three fingerprint and photo screenings; then US immigration reviews the case; then homeland security interviews the refugee; then a doctor examines the refugee; and finally several security agencies perform one last check after the refugee has been matched with a resettlement agency. The process takes 18 months to two years.

There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty. America must remain open to people of all faiths & backgrounds. #RefugeesWelcomepic.twitter.com/4LvMiZTRJJ - Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) January 25, 2017

Speaking on Thursday, a day before Trump announced his shift in refugee policy, Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state, quoted the words enshrined beneath the Statue of Liberty. They read: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

"There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty," said Albright, who came to the US as a child when her family fled Nazi persecution. "Today she is weeping because of the actions of President Trump".

Additional reporting by Alan Yuhas in San Francisco


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The Guardian


January 30, 2017 Monday 7:00 PM GMT 


US could resettle zero refugees from Manus and Nauru and still 'honour' deal;
Terms of agreement do not commit US to taking a single refugee, and Trump's ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries exclude majority of Australia's detainees


BYLINE: Helen Davidson and Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 1096 words


The United States could resettle zero refugees from the Australian-run immigration detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru and still be upholding the deal it has struck with Australia, according to publicly known details.

The terms of the agreement reached last November between the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and then US president Barack Obama do not commit the US to taking a single refugee, and the terms of new president Donald Trump's executive order would appear to exclude the majority of Manus and Nauru detainees being accepted.

At the weekend, Trump signed an executive order which immediately placed wide restrictions on the travel and migration of people from seven Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - to the US even if they have a valid visa or green card.  

Related: Malcolm Turnbull refuses to denounce Trump's travel ban

It also included a 120-day suspension of the US refugee admissions program, and an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. After 120 days the refugee admissions program will resume for nationals whom US intelligence authorities have said can adequately be assessed under new security procedures. Authorities can also prioritise applicants based on religion.

After a phone call with the new US president, Turnbull refused to condemn Trump's executive order, and said the Trump White House had indicated it would "honour" the deal struck between the Australian government and the former US administration.

However, based on the available information, it appears the US could resettle zero refugees from Manus Island and Nauru and still be "honouring" the deal it has struck with Australia.

The secretary of Australia's immigration department, Mike Pezzullo, told a Senate inquiry in November the number of refugees resettled was up to the US to determine, and there was no "numerical" commitment.

Related: Emirates airline changes pilot and crew rosters on US flights after Trump order

"There is, within the arrangement that we have struck, an agreement that all the persons who fall within the definition can express an interest. Then the American government will decide, once they have reviewed the cases, how many people they will take. So it is a process-driven arrangement rather than a numerical arrangement."

John Kerry, the US secretary of state at the time the deal was struck, said America's commitment extended to considering applications from refugees on Manus and Nauru, and the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration said it had only "agreed to consider" refugee referrals from the UNHCR.

Despite the largest group of Australia's offshore asylum seekers being from Iran, and many others from the other banned nations, there appears to be no exception for them in Trump's executive order.

Questions remain as to whether all those on Nauru and Manus are subject to the 120-day suspension, and whether those from the seven countries will be part of the expected tougher screening processes once the suspension is lifted.

The shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, said the unanswered questions left refugees "in limbo".

"We have Iranian refugees on Manus and Nauru, but they are currently banned from the United States," he told Guardian Australia.

"Has the prime minister sought assurances that they will be considered outside the executive order or will they be automatically excluded because they are Iranian? While president Trump says he will honour the agreement, does his executive order overrule some refugees and has the prime minister actually asked that question?"

At the end of last year there were 866 people detained on Manus Island and 380 people living in the Nauru regional processing centre.

According to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 510 positive initial refugee assessments and 669 positive final refugee assessments have been granted on Manus Island, and 983 on Nauru, where many former detainees now live in the community.

A specific breakdown of nationalities among those determinations is unavailable, but according to the Australian parliamentary library, by far the largest group of detainees in Australia's offshore centres are from Iran - one of the seven listed countries.

In figures from 2014 and 2015, Iranians were the dominant cohort on both Manus and Nauru. On Manus there was also a large portion from Iraq and a number from Somalia, both among the seven "countries of concern".

Related: Does Australia's government support the Trump travel ban? It depends | Katharine Murphy

Human rights groups called for Turnbull to clarify the details of his government's resettlement deal with the US.

Graham Thom, refugee coordinator at Amnesty International Australia, said there was little clarity around how those on Nauru and Manus would be effected.

"All [Turnbull] has said is the deal is going ahead, which makes you speculate those refugees are not part of the suspension," he said.

"But then after the four months it's what happens to people from those countries ... and whether or not by that time the US will say people from those countries can come but these additional security checks are in place."

Thom noted that while Iranians were part of the suspensions, other nationalities were not and it wasn't clear how that would affect resettlement times.

"That will also be devastating, if we see some nationalities going to the US quicker than others," he said.

Thom said US refugee processing has grown increasingly rigorous and was now among the longest in the world.

"Refugees can wait two years while they're been accepted by the US, and essentially they're stuck becauses they're in the US pipeline," he said.

"It becomes very complicated ... That's one of the fears we have - even if they are lucky and are considered by the US, this could still mean they spend the next two years stuck on Manus and Nauru."

Thom called for those on the islands to be brought to Australia in the interim, or at the very least allowed to go to other countries which might take them, such as Canada or New Zealand.

GetUp also called for them to be brought to Australia. "We need more from the government than 'wait and see and she'll be right'," said Matthew Phillips, the group's human rights campaign director.

"There must be a clear timeline for the implementation of the deal. After being detained for over three years in unsafe and abusive conditions, the prime minister must immediately evacuate the camps and offer a clear pathway to safety for nearly 2,000 men, women and children, and their families."


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FinancialWire


January 16, 2017 Monday


Alexander De Croo allocates extra support for the reception and protection of South Sudanese refugees


LENGTH: 585 words


BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo will allocate EUR3 million for the reception of South Sudanese refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The Belgian Development Cooperation will support a two-year programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In 2016, our country contributed a total of EUR21.4 million to the humanitarian work of the UN Refugee Agency. 



Alexander De Croo: "The human suffering in South Sudan, which is one of the youngest countries in the world, is appalling. The South Sudanese political leaders' responsibility in this respect is overwhelming. Their own self-interest takes priority over the safety of their 11 million compatriots. Given that the humanitarian needs are so pressing, I have decided to provide humanitarian assistance to the Congolese and Ugandan governments for the reception of the countless refugees. Hopefully in 2017 we will finally see the start of a lasting peace in South Sudan, after three years of war".

The Belgian funding of EUR3 million will support the UNHCR emergency plan for refugees from South Sudan in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Belgium will provide EUR1.5 million for reception and protection in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the same amount for Uganda. The UNHCR will have flexibility in utilising the funds, based on the needs in both countries.

The UNHCR will give priority to providing basic provisions for refugees, and to their safety. Additionally, it will focus on registration and encouraging self-sufficiency. The refugees will be housed among local communities in both countries, and not in camps.

Recurrent outbreaks of violence

The Republic of South Sudan, which obtained its independence in 2011, has been ravaged for three years by a civil war between government troops and opposition forces. A peace agreement was signed in August 2015, and as part of its implementation, a transitional government was formed in April 2016. However, violence flared up again in July 2016, with widespread violations of human rights, civilian deaths, rape and other forms of sexual violence, child conscriptions, looting and the destruction of civil and humanitarian resources. As a result, there was a drastic increase in refugee flows from South Sudan into the Democratic Republic of Congo, and especially Uganda.

According to figures from the UNHCR, there are currently 604,000 South Sudanese refugees living in Uganda. 343,500 refugees have arrived since last summer, the equivalent of more than 2,200 new refugees every day. There are more than 65,000 South Sudanese refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a daily inflow of more than 300 since last summer. In the space of a year, the number of South Sudanese refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo has almost doubled, and has almost quadrupled in Uganda.

Important humanitarian partner

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR is an important humanitarian partner for Belgium. Every year, Belgium contributes EUR7.5 million to the UNHCR's general funds. In 2016, various programmes were supported for refugees in Iraq, Jordan, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Mali and Mauritania, for a total amount of EUR11.625 million. In 2016, Belgium provided a total of EUR21.4 million in funding to the UNHCR.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Kingdom of Belgium - Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.



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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 12, 2017 Friday 3:15 PM GMT 


Refugees in Serbia 'sprayed with insecticide' before forceful eviction;
Hundreds are still unaccounted for after the 'scary' treatment at hands of authorities


BYLINE: Emily Goddard


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 1023 words


Serbian authorities have evicted some 1,200 refugees from a makeshift camp in derelict barracks in central Belgrade, leaving several hundred - including unaccompanied children - unaccounted for.

Migrants living in the abandoned structure were told to leave early on Thursday morning by officials from the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration to allow for the building's immediate demolition.

Some local aid workers described the evacuation as a "remarkably smooth operation"but others reported "chaos". 

"We were shocked at how inhumane and disorganised the eviction was," Rosie Johnson, a volunteer with charity SolidariTea, told

The Independent

. "The commissariat came in to the barracks where people were sleeping at 7am, waking people up by hitting them with tent poles, dismantling their tents while people still slept inside and not giving anyone time to gather their meagre belongings."

Ms Johnson also said that commissariat officials wore gloves throughout the operation and were seen to be frequently washing their hands after contact with refugees in a nearby fountain.

Read more

Home Office ignores almost 1,600 offers to take in child refugees

"I hoped this would go unnoticed by the guys [refugees]," she added. "But Zakir turned to me and said, 'Rosie, you and Lily [her colleague] are good people. You talk with us and you don't wash your hands after you touch us. Why do they wash their hands? We are not dirty animals.' Then Safi said simply, 'I am not an animal. Serbian people think I am animal'."

Ivan Miskovic, a spokesperson for the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, told

The Independent

: "They [the officials] wore gloves because they had to remove bottles and non-food items."

Video footage from Wednesday, the day before the evacuation, also shows what looks like an official in protective workwear and face mask spraying what volunteers in the Serbian capital said was toxic insecticide within the barracks while refugees and their belongings were still inside.

"It was just like an invasion of privacy and a total disregard of their dignity," a volunteer doctor said. "It was done with no regard to their humanity at all. They just came into everybody's rooms and started spraying what could have been a dangerous toxic substance. They just sprayed it over what little belongings they have, it was scary and rude and undignified."

The Commissariat has denied any role in the use of insecticide, saying it is "not mandated with any kind of spraying". It added that it could not confirm who carried out the spraying.

No injuries have been reported.

Many of the refugees, of which a high number were lone boys and men of Afghani and Pakistani descent, were taken on buses to a series of government-run camps with spaces across the country. But as many as 400 were no longer accounted for at the time of writing.

"Our main concern is that over the coming weeks many people may go completely off-radar," Stijn Van der Leest, of Help Refugees, told

The Independent

. "This is particularly worrying given that approximately 40 per cent of the original population of the barracks is under 18, which leaves a lot of potential for trafficking, exploitation and abuse by the many smugglers that are known to operate in Belgrade."

Read more

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Aid workers 'lucky to be alive' after Libyan warship stops rescue

Everything politicians tell you about young refugees is wrong

Obama warns climate change could create 'unprecedented' refugee crisis

French authorities bus hundreds of refugees out of Paris

Humanitarian non-profit organisation Are You Syrious? also reported that a number of refugees were returning back in Belgrade after being transported to the official camps.

Many migrants say they feel threatened by the idea of being locked up. They also complained of overcrowding and said their basic needs were not being adequately met in the state-run camps.

Ahmed, a 24-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, said he did not want to leave the barracks because although the conditions were squalid they had become his home. "In these camps we're not free, we live like animals," he said. "We're fed and then we sleep and that's all we do. In the barracks we had a good life; we were all living together here and we were free."

Mr Miskovic added that the refugees were "transported in an organised manner in buses to the reception and asylum centres" and the whole process went "without slightest incident or unwanted action".

"Moving out of migrants from the barracks and other public spaces in the Belgrade city centre was carried out in a highly human and proper manner, at the same time taking into account migrants' human rights," he said.

"All the migrants, more than 900, were properly informed week in advance and provided with information on free feds in reception and asylum centres managed by the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia. Also, they were given an option to apply themselves and to choose where to be accommodated.

"It is our impression that they themselves realised that living in the barracks in question was no longer sustainable for many reasons. And, which is more important, by moving them from those places we protect them from smugglers and other forms of abuse.

"Commissariat for Refugees and Migration managed to provide enough accommodation capacities for all the migrants. On this day 6,514 migrants are accommodated in reception and asylum centers."

A number of refugees had staged a hunger strike in protest of the eviction and planned demolition after Serbian authorities warned that all migrants squatting in the centre of Belgrade would be transferred to governmental centres within one month.

The site of the former barracks is being cleared as it forms part of the plans for a £2.5bn waterside development. The Belgrade Waterfront will include skyscrapers, luxury penthouse apartments, shopping malls, hotels and parks.

More than 7,200 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants were identified in Serbia at the last count, according to the UN Refugee Agency's latest report, which was published last week.


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MailOnline


May 16, 2017 Tuesday 5:51 AM GMT 


Manus Island refugees fear RIOTS as officials prepare to shut down the detention centre 'within weeks'


BYLINE: AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 780 words



Parts of Australian-run Manus Island detention centre will be shut down within weeks ahead of its final closure, prompting refugees to fear riots will break out. 

Papua New Guinea officials on Monday reportedly told refugees that an area of the camp would close on Sunday, with the rest of the compound to be shut on June 30.

But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Manus Island was still on track for closure at the end of October.

'The centre won't close drop dead on the 31st of October, they will start to decommission parts of the centre in the run up,' Mr Dutton told 3AW on Tuesday.

An unspecified number of asylum-seekers will be relocated to a transit centre, according to Reuters.

Detainees awaiting acceptance for resettlement by the United States have been told that some of them will be held at the East Lorengau camp, near the island's major town.

Mr Dutton previously said refugees who aren't taken under the US resettlement deal will settle in PNG, while non-refugees will be sent back to their home country.

'We've been consistent in the message that people will not settle here,' he told 3AW on Tuesday.

As at 31 October last year, 82 per cent of the men had been found to be legitimate refugees by the PNG government, according to Australian government figures.

Greens senator Nick McKim has slammed the Turnbull government plan, over fears it will be put refugee lives at risk.

'The potential here is that some detainees may die as a result of the announcement... Papua New Guinea is not a safe place for these detainees,' Senator McKim told reporters in Hobart on Tuesday.

Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani said Australia was continuing to violate human rights.

'The Australian government wants to implement this policy in spite of the serious resistance from local [PNG] people who are strongly against the decision to take more people into their community,' Mr Boochani said.

'In addition, the refugees are asking for freedom in a safe place.

'It is unavoidable that the refugees will resist and the government knows that well... But it appears again that there is not any law for protecting the refugees and there is not any justice.'

Mr Boochani said Manus Island was 'full of tension' and refugees were 'very angry' with the plan.

He told the ABC he expected there to be riots.

'We want to say to people and to the government, we don't want to live in PNG,' he told ABC.

'Don't use force and don't make trouble in this island. It is enough.'

The Manus Island complex was slated for closure on October 31, after PNG's Supreme Court ruled it illegal last year.

Human rights groups and the United Nations have criticised the camp's cramped conditions, inadequate medical facilities, and violence, with activists renewing calls for the centre to be immediately shut down in recent months.

News of the planned closure came after Amnesty International released its report into the Good Friday shooting at the centre.

The human rights group said verified footage and images confirmed bullets were fired directly into the camps during the rampage, contradicting initial claims made by Australian immigration officials and PNG police suggesting soldiers only fired bullets into the air.

Mr Dutton has repeatedly said PNG soldiers opened fire on the centre because they were concerned about the welfare of a young boy who was allegedly led into the compound.

But Amnesty says the Australian government has failed to take responsibility for people's lives, arguing Mr Dutton sought to diminish the seriousness of the shooting.

'Instead of waiting for the results of an investigation, (Mr) Dutton has inflamed matters by making an irresponsible and unfounded claim about the shooting incident,' Amnesty's Kate Schuetze said.

'For him then to try and connect (the incident involving the boy), weeks later, to drunken soldiers shooting at a refugee centre is reckless in the extreme and will put the lives of people there at even greater risk.'

Refugees have lodged a complaint with Australian authorities about Mr Dutton's comments and are urging the release of CCTV footage they say will exonerate them.

They say the boy came to the compound weeks prior hungry, and refugees gave him food. 


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FinancialWire


March 1, 2017 Wednesday


Tanzania: Humanitarian Response in Refugee Camps Still Falling Behind


LENGTH: 626 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- Pressure is mounting in Tanzanian refugee camps as the flow of refugees from Burundi continues on a large scale. January saw the largest rate of new arrivals in a single month since May 2015, with nearly 19,000 people crossing the border into Tanzania, according to the UNHCR. 



Some 290,000 refugees, over three quarters of whom are Burundian, are crammed into three overstretched camps: Nyarugusu, Mtendeli and Nduta. Nduta camp - already full in November last year - is now overflowing and is currently home to 117,000 people, more than double its intended capacity. With between 600 and 1,000 people arriving per day, it is expected the camp will reach 150,000 by mid-April.

"With the three camps at full capacity and the flow of refugees not slowing, it is more and more urgent that a site for a fourth camp is identified and immediately established. MSF has repeatedly called for this, but we are still not seeing concrete action being taken," says David Nash, Head of Mission for MSF. "Although agencies have begun to scale up assistance, the humanitarian response still does not match the rate of new arrivals. With insufficient shelter available, people are forced to spend more time in overcrowded communal shelters, where the risk of disease is much higher."

As refugees arrive, medical pressures grow

In Nduta camp, where MSF is the main health provider, medical teams have seen a fourfold increase in the number of outpatient consultations. Malaria is the major concern and with the rainy season putting additional pressure on already overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions, there has been an explosion in cases. In January alone, MSF treated nearly 17,000 people for the disease in Nduta and Nyarugusu camps. Diarrhoea, respiratory tract infections, and skin conditions are meanwhile very common among refugees.

Sexual and reproductive health services are in high demand in Nduta. Deliveries more than doubled during the last four months of 2016, and over 400 babies were born in January. Young children, pregnant women and new mothers are particularly vulnerable to illness.

"There is a real fear that we may witness a health crisis if crowding gets worse and facilities are unable to meet the needs of people arriving," continues Nash.

Refugee status under threat

Efforts to meet the shelter, medical and hygiene needs of refugees will also need to take into consideration the recent decision by the Tanzanian government to revoke the prima facie status of Burundian refugees arriving into the country.

Since the emergency began in April 2015, all Burundians arriving into Tanzania have been automatically granted refugee status. The decision to change this approach means new arrivals will now have their refugee status determined individually, a process that may affect the humanitarian assistance that can be made available to them.

"Tanzania in recent years has generously hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing acute crisis," Nash says. "International donors must drastically increase their support to the Tanzanian Government to ensure it continues to respect refugee conventions and provide safe refuge for as long as people continue to flee. We again call for a rapid scale-up of aid to support the ever-increasing number of refugees entering Tanzania."

MSF has worked in Tanzania since May 2015. Currently, teams are working in Nyarugusu and Nduta camps. In Nyarugusu, MSF runs a 40-bed stabilisation unit and three malaria clinics and provides mental health support. In Nduta, MSF is the major medical provider, running a 120-bed hospital and five health posts, and providing mental health support.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).



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The Times (London)


February 18, 2017 Saturday  
Edition 3;
National Edition


Baking, bikes and beds help ease trauma for refugees;
Projects across the country have found innovative ways to support migrants, writes Simon de Bruxelles


BYLINE: Simon de Bruxelles


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 31


LENGTH: 889 words


The government has abandoned thousands of child refugees who had hoped to find sanctuary in Britain. While Amber Rudd, the home secretary, was closing the door on the so-called Dubs children, however, a loose network of volunteers and small charities has been working to assist them and refugees who are already here.

Many volunteers, inspired by their time as unpaid aid workers in the Calais Jungle, have helped to set up schemes enabling refugees to make a new life. 

The projects include a trauma centre in East Sussex, an educational charity for women in Birmingham, free bicycles for asylum seekers in London and bread-baking courses to help refugee women integrate into the workplace.

All have been set up by volunteers who filled a gap left by mainstream charities struggling to help with the refugee crisis.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was among those who condemned the decision last week to end the Dubs scheme, under which as many as 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees aged up to 15 would have been allowed to come to Britain.

The scheme will be closed after only 350 youngsters have been brought here. A debate on the issue will be held in the Commons on Thursday.

Many of the younger refugees who have made it to Britain are struggling to cope with losing their homes, families and identities.

residential centre Lilian Simonsson is setting up a residential centre in Lewes, East Sussex. It has been a steep learning curve for the filmmaker. She was volunteering and running a writing workshop for young people in the Jungle when she realised that getting to England was not going to be the end of their problems. She is hoping that many of the staff at the centre will be former refugees.

A pilot project called Enthum House supported by the Sainsbury Trust will care for six 16-to-18 year olds. Ms Simonsson, 41, said: "These are the most vulnerable children because they don't get the support from social services the younger ones do. They are put into hostels and left to fend for themselves. If they are welcomed into a warm and caring and human environment often their trauma gets resolved within a year, but if they are met with a really bureaucratic or hostile environment that trauma prevails."

bike project The Bike Project, based in Denmark Hill, south London, has provided 3,150 bicycles for refugees since it was set up four years ago. Jem Stein, 29, its founder, said: "I met a refugee at university and saw the difficulty they have getting around on the £36 they are given to live on each week." It employs seven staff including three bike mechanics and a cycle instructor. Some of the more valuable donated bikes are sold to pay for essential safety equipment such as helmets, lights, reflective jackets, gloves and locks. The charity also runs courses teaching refugee women how to cycle, giving them a freedom many have never experienced.

about refugees set in a dimly lit shipping container. The run at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney sold out. She is looking for a producer for Dirty Girls, a musical about female volunteers who travelled to Calais full of high expectations but little experience. She said: "Long-term volunteers often spent their life savings or inheritances or have given up jobs and careers to help, but they've been left traumatised and broken through seeing what refugees have gone through and being left in the cold by NGOs. It is about the failure of international aid, the failure of governments, and the love of ordinary people helping ordinary people. There is a libretto called the WTF Chorus which is completely composed of people singing 'what the absolute f**k'."

just bread The E5 Bakehouse in east London has run four courses teaching refugee women how to bake bread. Each eightweek course was attended by eight women. It was the idea of Andrew Lawton, of the Refugee Council, and is run by volunteers. Mr Lawton said: "Refugee women have often suffered unspeakable violence and loss in their home countries. They arrive in Britain with their lives in tatters. The project was initially set up to help refugee women overcome the barriers they face in finding work, but also in recognition of the social isolation that many refugee women often experience. They are ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances."

meena Meena is the Pashtu word for love. Liz Clegg, who founded a centre for women and children in the Jungle, is setting up a centre in Handsworth, Birmingham, to help plug some of the gaps left by hard-pressed local authorities. She said: "Our target group is the same as Calais, which is women and children and in particular unaccompanied children. It's about enabling every child to reach their full potential and to thrive. We can provide English lessons, educational support, homework clubs. It can be very difficult for these children to integrate, we help give them a bit more confidence and independence."

bed for a night ... or a month Refugees at Home, set up by the former BBC journalist Sara Nathan, matches homeless refugees and asylum seekers with hosts with a spare room. Since it started in February last year it has provided 14,848 nights' sleep. Ms Nathan said: "Every one is a night not spent on a night bus, on a park bench or exchanging a bed for sex, all the things a person has to do when they are on the street."

Leading article, page 27


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The Guardian(London)


May 11, 2017 Thursday 6:00 AM GMT 


Tim Farron makes pledge for UK to take 50,000 more Syrian refugees;
Liberal Democrats challenge Labour to match their election manifesto commitment on refugees, with the resettlement likely to cost £4.3bn


BYLINE: Jessica Elgot


SECTION: POLITICS; Version:1


LENGTH: 625 words


Britain should take 50,000 more Syrian refugees from camps in the region, the Liberal Democrats will say in their manifesto, as well as re-opening the scheme to resettle lone child refugees in Europe.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, said Labour should match his pledge in their own manifesto and said the offer was a message about his party's values.

"Labour should match this, this is a challenge to other parties and particularly to the government," he said. "I think we need a strong opposition and you only get that with a clear alternative, this is our clear alternative." 

Related: The Guardian view on the Dubs amendment: a glowing ember of compassion | Editorial

The Lib Dems estimate the cost of resettling an additional 50,000 refugees would require a hefty £4.3bn investment. Farron said his party believed it was worth the investment. "I don't want us to be the kind of country who turns our back on those in desperate need, this is about Britain doing it's fair share," he said. "It's not about taking all of the burden."

While Farron has often urged more help for refugees after visits to refugee camps in Lesbos, Calais and Macedonia, the pledge is also a clear sign that his party is refocusing its election efforts on Labour voters, particularly metropolitan progressives.

"My job is to try to present a different set of value, we are a political party making this a major part of our campaign," he said. "We believe the British people are better than the Conservative party are making us out to be."

"It's also a challenge to the British people to make it clear to their government that this is the kind of Britain they want, a decent country, which doesn't forget those in need, while the Conservative government choose a path that makes Britain meaner, narrower and less thoughtful about our neighbours."

The UK's current programme, the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement scheme, was launched in early 2014 in order to provide a route for selected Syrian refugees to come to the UK, prioritising the elderly, the disabled and victims of sexual violence and torture.

The scheme's aim was to take 20,000 refugees from the Syrian region over five years. While more than 5,400 Syrians had been resettled by the end of last year, campaigners have said more urgent resettlement is needed.

Related: Nearly 250 refugees dead or missing after shipwrecks off Libyan coast

The Lib Dems have also said they will re-open the so-called Dubs amendment scheme - named after the Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs who put down the amendment to the immigration bill - to bring lone child refugees to Britain who are in camps in Europe.

Since entering No 10 last year, Theresa May has resisted calls from campaigners to widen schemes to take more Syrian refugees, ending the transfer of children under the Dubs amendment earlier this year with the government claiming that local authorities had reached the limit of their resources. "We have always taken the view that we can help more Syrian refugees by putting aid into the region," May has said.

The government argues that the UK has pledged more than £2.3bn to support those affected by the conflict, the largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis in British history.

Farron said he did not believe the UK's funding for Syrian refugee camps was a substitute for resettling refugees to allow them to rebuild their lives.

"I had met Syrian refugees in Cologne, welcomed into a civilised country which had the desire to do the right thing," he said.

"They were setting up home, very quickly learning German, aeronautical engineers who will become loyal, tax-paying German citizens. As safe, sanitary and caring as a camp can be made to be, it's still a flaming camp and it's no way to raise your kids."


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FinancialWire


March 20, 2017 Monday


South Sudan now world's fastest growing refugee crisis - UN refugee agency


LENGTH: 597 words


The number of South Sudanese fleeing their homes is "alarming," the United Nations refugee agency today said, announcing that 1.6 million people have either been displaced or fled to neighbouring countries in the past eight months ago. 



"A famine produced by the vicious combination of fighting and drought is now driving the world's fastest growing refugee crisis," the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Babar Baloch, told journalists at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

He added that "the rate of new displacement is alarming, representing an impossible burden on a region that is significantly poorer and which is fast running short of resources to cope."

Refugees from South Sudan are crossing the borders to the neighbouring countries. The majority of them go to Uganda where new arrivals spiked from 2,000 per day to 6,000 per day in February, and currently average more than 2,800 people per day.

"The situation is now critical," said Mr. Baloch, warning that recent rains are making the humanitarian situation more difficult.[embedded content]

VIDEO: UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch warns that South Sudan is facing world's fastest growing refugee crisis.

The UN agency is reiterating its calls for financial support. Aid for South Sudanese refugees is only eight per cent funded at $ 781.8 million, and UNHCR's funding appeal for Uganda urgently needs $ 267 million.

The situation in Uganda is a "first and major test" of the commitments made at the Summit for Refugees and Migrants last September, the spokesperson said.

RELATED: World leaders at UN summit adopt 'bold' plan to enhance protections for refugees and migrants

One of the main achievements of the Summit was to create a refugee response framework that integrates humanitarian and development efforts. This translates into giving refugees land and allowing them to access job markets, for example.

The situation of refugees in Uganda could impact how the UN and humanitarian partners are working to support national authorities in the other neighbouring countries - the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan.

"No neighbouring country is immune," said Mr. Baloch. 'Security situation continues to deteriorate'

Also today, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (UNMISS), David Shearer, warned that the security situation in the country is worsening, and national authorities are not taking action.

"The situation in South Sudan continues to deteriorate and generate profound human suffering for the population of that country - suffering in which local and ethnic divisions have been exploited for political ends," David Shearer told a meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council on South Sudan.

He added that the recent escalation of fighting in Equatoria- considered the food basket of South Sudan - has led to a significant displacement of civilians and disrupted food production for the country.

Intense fighting is also reported in the Upper Nile. Satellite imagery shows much of one town, Wau Shilluk, destroyed and deserted.

The senior UN official reiterated concerns about the humanitarian situation in the country, calling the ongoing crisis "entirely man-made." An estimated 100,000 people are facing starvation and an additional one million are classified as being on the brink of famine.

Mr. Shearer, who is also the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the country, urged access for humanitarian organisations and the UN mission.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Herald (Glasgow)


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


Thousands of refugees left stuck in limbo in Calais of the Balkans


BYLINE: David McCann


SECTION: Pg. 14


LENGTH: 841 words


In recent months, Serbian authorities have tried to provide shelter, food and medical care to thousands of refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa camping within its borders.

But the newcomers do not want any of it. This country is quickly becoming the Calais of the Balkans, a reference to the northern French city where refugees live in limbo while awaiting either deportation, asylum or continuing their journeys in hope of landing in a more welcoming European country.

"I tried to leave Serbia 17 times," said Jawad Afzali, 17, an Afghan who has lived for the past six months with 1,500 other Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani migrants in abandoned warehouses and a tent village that sprung up behind the bus station. 

"Every time, they bring me back here," he added. "Two days ago, I tried to enter Croatia. Now I'm here again."

Afzali is one of 7,000 refugees stuck in Serbia since the European migrant crisis erupted two years ago in this economically struggling country, and his situation underscores the clash between policy and reality for the migrants.

Bulgaria, Hungary and other European Union members that border Serbia, which is not part of the 28-nation alliance, have closed their borders to refugees seeking to escape war and economic stagnation in Syria and elsewhere. They want to move to Germany, Britain and other wealthy European countries in the north.

Some of those countries adamantly refuse to take them. The European Commission said last week it would file lawsuits against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for failing to take their share of refugees as part of the 2015 plan to distribute 160,000 migrants stuck in limbo in Italy and Greece across the European Union. Other countries such as Sweden and Germany are tightening restrictions for asylum and increasing deportations.

Meanwhile, more migrants continue to arrive, mainly to Italy and Greece: 75,000 made the sea crossing since January, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

In Serbia, around 6,000 refugees are in official asylum reception centres that provide education and other services, according to Nenad Ivanisevic, the state secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Issues. But he said some refugees are not interested in going to the centres.

"Serbia is ready to accept a certain number of people and could offer them a full support for their integration into Serbian society, but the refugees don't want that,'' Ivanisevic said. He said Serbia is seeking more international funding for refugee programs, in addition to the $43 million the EU has already given.

Others said refugees fear they will not be able to leave the centres. In most European countries, refugees usually must stay in the country where they initially arrived. As a result, a common practice since 2015 is for refugees to avoid registering or providing fingerprints so they can reach their desired country in Europe and will not be ordered to return to the nation where they first arrived.

That puts migrants in a Catch-22, said Kais Ayoubi of the Real Medicine Foundation, a US-based charity that provides health care to refugees in Serbia.

"The situation here is awful," Ayoubi said. Migrants lack clean running water, toilets or electricity - and they burn garbage and tyres to keep warm in the winter, harming their lungs, he said. "These people didn't want to register with the authorities, therefore they don't get help from the state."

The political climate does not help. In April, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic won the Serbian presidential election with 55 per cent of the vote. He has pledged not to build a wall or close Serbia's borders, like Hungary, but he also repeatedly vowed not to let the country become a "parking lot for illegal immigrants".

In May, the government began to empty the abandoned warehouses behind Belgrade's bus station and relocate refugees to official asylum centres across the country. The makeshift camp had become a focal point for people smugglers and a health hazard, so the migrants will get better protection in the asylum centres, the government added.

Many refugees are concerned they will be locked in the asylum centres with limited freedom of movement - and won't be able to get out.

Furman Ali, 25, a Pakistani who wants to go to Italy, said the fear of being moved, added to worries of being deported, is setting everyone on edge. "We don't sleep at night because we don't know when police will come and take us away," said Ali, who has been living in the camp behind the bus station since January. "People fight every day. Sometimes every 10 minutes, sometimes for no reason."

Afzali just hopes he can get out of both the camp and the country. He and his cousin want to go to London, where his brother lives. But Croatian authorities keep catching him when he attempts to leave. He's planning on trying to cross the Romanian border before heading to the UK. "I am (of the age) when I should get education," he said. "I can't get that here."

This article first appeared in our sister paper USA Today.


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:16 AM GMT 


May faces backlash for refusing to condemn Trump ban on refugees


SECTION: UK


LENGTH: 694 words


Theresa May has faced a furious backlash after she refused to condemn Donald Trump's widely criticised ban on refugees entering the United States.

After initially dodging questions about her views on the controversial move, the Prime Minister then insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

As Mrs May declined to speak out, her counterpart in Turkey, a country with a dismal record on human rights, hit out at the US and other international leaders also raised their concerns. 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked the PM for failing to condemn President Trump's actions.

He said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

Mrs May was pressed repeatedly about her views on the refugee ban during a press conference in Ankara where she had been holding talks with Turkish leaders.

She told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. 

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

Turkish PM Binali Yildirim hit out at the ban, warning the only way to tackle the refugee crisis was to deal with the reasons they were fleeing.

He said: "You cannot solve this issue of refugees by putting up walls. You have to eradicate the root causes of this. You have to eradicate the regional discrepancies in terms of development."

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is of Iraqi origin but a British citizen, said a US immigration lawyer had confirmed that he would be hit by the ban,

"A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen," he said. "Sad day for the USA.

"Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat."

The US president has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months but blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

A 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations has been imposed.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Mrs May's behaviour was "shocking".

He said: " Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on."

"At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal," he added. "They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way."

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country welcomed " those fleeing persecution, terror and war" regardless of their faith.

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said Mr Trump must not be invited to address both Houses of Parliament from Westminster Hall on his state visit later this, pointedly insisting "t hose who wish to fawn over him" should do so elsewhere.

Mrs May issued a caution to Turkey's president on human rights during the one day trip, which saw the two nations sign a £100 million-plus defence deal.

The PM was the first Western head of government to visit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since last July's failed coup against his regime, which was followed by a state of emergency characterised by more than 40,000 arrests, the dismissal of thousands of public officials and the closure of numerous media outlets.

It followed directly on from her trip to meet President Trump in the White House on Friday.

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the ban was "both wrong in itself and very worrying for the future".


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:16 AM GMT 


May faces backlash for refusing to condemn Trump ban on refugees


SECTION: UK


LENGTH: 840 words


Theresa May has faced a furious backlash after she refused to condemn Donald Trump's widely criticised ban on refugees entering the United States.

After initially dodging questions about her views on the controversial move, the Prime Minister then insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

As Mrs May declined to speak out, her counterpart in Turkey, a country with a dismal record on human rights, hit out at the US and other international leaders also raised their concerns. 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked the PM for failing to condemn President Trump's actions.

He said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

Mrs May was pressed repeatedly about her views on the refugee ban during a press conference in Ankara where she had been holding talks with Turkish leaders.

She told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. 

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

Turkish PM Binali Yildirim hit out at the ban, warning the only way to tackle the refugee crisis was to deal with the reasons they were fleeing.

He said: "You cannot solve this issue of refugees by putting up walls. You have to eradicate the root causes of this. You have to eradicate the regional discrepancies in terms of development."

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is of Iraqi origin but a British citizen, said a US immigration lawyer had confirmed that he would be hit by the ban,

"A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen," he said. "Sad day for the USA.

"Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat."

The US president has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months but blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

A 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations has been imposed.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Mrs May's behaviour was "shocking".

He said: " Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on."

"At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal," he added. "They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way."

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country welcomed " those fleeing persecution, terror and war" regardless of their faith.

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said Mr Trump must not be invited to address both Houses of Parliament from Westminster Hall on his state visit later this, pointedly insisting "t hose who wish to fawn over him" should do so elsewhere.

Mrs May issued a caution to Turkey's president on human rights during the one day trip, which saw the two nations sign a £100 million-plus defence deal.

The PM was the first Western head of government to visit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since last July's failed coup against his regime, which was followed by a state of emergency characterised by more than 40,000 arrests, the dismissal of thousands of public officials and the closure of numerous media outlets.

It followed directly on from her trip to meet President Trump in the White House on Friday.

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the ban was "both wrong in itself and very worrying for the future".

As Mrs May landed back in London, a Downing Street source said: "We will always find ourselves in agreement on some things and disagreement on other things."

Tory MP Heidi Allen hit out at the way Mrs May had handled the situation.

She said: "S trong leadership means not being afraid to tell someone powerful when they're wrong. It's an ethos this country is proud of @theresa_may.

" I don't care how special the relationship is, some lines just shouldn't be crossed."

Speaking in the White House, President Trump said the ban was "working out very nicely".

He said: "It's not a Muslim ban but we were totally prepared. It's working out very nicely.

"You see it at the airports, you see it all over, it's working out very nicely, and we are going to have a very, very strict ban and we are going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 24, 2017 Friday 4:52 PM GMT 


Europol report hails 'success' against people smuggling despite more refugees dying than ever before;
Humanitarian groups say lack of legal routes to Europe forcing migrants into criminals'hands


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 960 words


A new report claiming European operations to combat people smuggling in the ongoing refugee crisis are a success has been lambasted by aid workers as more migrants die than ever before.

Almost 14,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat in Europe in the first weeks of 2017, withat least 366 dying at seaand others freezing to deathwhile stranded by border closures.

But a report by EU-wide security agency Europol claimed a year of efforts by the new European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC) was seeing progress. 

Babies among more than 1,300 refugees rescued in one day

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for migration, said the initiative was "successfully fighting, disrupting and apprehending criminal migrant smuggling networks".

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol said more than 90 per cent of migrants entering the EU have used smugglers.

Read more

UK closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m profit for smugglers'

Child refugees in France record desparate plea to Theresa May

Brexit and Trump 'squeezing refugees out of spotlight' warns Starmer

"These organised crime networks are taking mass profits from mass migration, and making migrant smuggling the fastest growing criminal sector," he added.

"To tackle this, we have brought together some of the best investigators in Europe in the EMSC."

Almost 17,500 suspected migrant smugglers were identified in 2016 according to Europol's report, which said that 1,150 social media accounts linked to the trade had been flagged alongside 12,000 "operational messages", as well as 2,500 forged or stolen documents.

More than 500 "vessels of interest" are also being monitored at sea, although no mention was made of "capture and destroy" missions announced by the EU in 2015 taking place.

Humanitarian organisations working on rescue operations in the increasingly deadly Mediterranean and providing aid at transit points across Europe say they have not seen any benefit from anti-smuggling operations.

Aurelie Ponthieu, a humanitarian specialist on displacement at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), told

The Independent

thatrefugees were being driven into criminals'hands by the lack of safe and legal routes to Europe.

Read more

More than 70 refugees wash up dead on Libyan beach

"What are the indicators of success?" she asked. "Looking at the number of smugglers caught is not the indicator we would use when we continue to see people dying -there have never been so many.

"One death is one too many and a policy that contributes to death and violence cannot be labelled as a success."

More than 5,000 refugees died crossing the Mediterranean in 2016 and the grim record is likely to be surpassed this year, with other migrants dying of hypothermia in extreme winter weather across Europe and being shot in the Balkans.

Ms Ponthieu said border closures along the land route from Greece to Hungary previously used by refugees to reach western Europe had forced asylum seekers to resort to smugglers when they had previously passed through openly.

"The consequences of these journeys are dire and continue deteriorating," she said.

Refugees have died of hypothermia in European refugee camps (

Getty

)

"If one route closes, another one opens and usually it's more dangerous...people are escaping conditions that are so terrible they will do anything."

Research by Save the Children found that the EU-Turkey deal had dramaticallyreduced the number of refugees journeying over the Aegean Sea to Greecebut had given people smugglers "a firmer grip on a hugely profitable business".

Caroline Anning, a spokesperson for the charity, said Europe's priority should be providing safe and legal routes such as the Dubs amendment to resettle child refugees, which has been scrapped by the UK.

"Unless vulnerable refugees have safe and legal routes to access asylum, people smugglers will always be in business on the refugee route," she added.

Europol's report alluded to the knock-on effect of the crackdowns, noting that boat crossings from North Africa to Europe increased after the EU-Turkey agreement.

"Facilitation by train and by air was increasingly reported; this displacement is believed to be the consequence of the additional controls implemented on land and sea routes," the report said, adding that the supply of false documents was also rising.

Hungary's border closure has seen refugees beaten and tear gassed by police

A damning report by the Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisisfound European policy has so far been an "absolute failure", with refugees continuing to use an array of thealmost 100 different and constantly evolving routes to reach Europe.

Researchers found that smugglers'efforts to evade detection by the EUs Operation Sophia was partly responsible for rocketing death rates worsened by a switch from wooden fishing boats and commercial vessels to unseaworthy dinghies that frequently sink and capsize.

Read more

The stories of the refugees rescued from the Mediterranean

British Government efforts have focused on funding increased provision for refugees in countries outside the EU, including Turkey and Libya, to discourage them risking sea journeys.

On Thursday, the Royal Navy ship HMS Echo was among the vessels rescuing more than 1,100 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea in one of the busiest days yet in 2017.

Conservative MP Peter Bone, the former chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, argued that improved provision to keep asylum seekers in Italy and Greece would discourage treacherous crossings.

"It's making these evil bastards [smugglers] a lot of money and killing people," he told

The Independent

.

"What you've got to do is stop the crossings by reducing the demand and keep people closer to home. These are real people, this shouldn't be happening."


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MailOnline


January 30, 2017 Monday 11:51 PM GMT 


Trump administration 'WILL allow 872 refugees into US this week' despite ban


BYLINE: REUTERS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 645 words



The US government has granted waivers to let 872 refugees into the country this week, despite President Donald Trump's executive order on Friday temporarily banning entry of refugees from any country, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document seen by Reuters. 

A Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the waivers, noting that the refugees were considered 'in transit' and had already been cleared for resettlement before the ban took effect.

Refugees preparing for resettlement typically have severed personal ties and relinquished their possessions, leaving them particularly vulnerable if their plans to depart are suddenly canceled.

The waivers, granted by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), came amid international protests against Trump's rushed executive order. Critics said the order in some cases was not clearly communicated to the agencies responsible for implementing it.

It was not known if additional waivers would be granted, the official said. The document did not give the nationalities of the refugees who will be admitted into the United States.

Over the weekend, non-refugee visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries also targeted in Trump's executive order were detained, deported and in some cases blocked from boarding flights to the United States.

The countries covered by the traveler ban were Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.

The internal DHS document said that between late Friday and early Monday 348 visa holders were prevented from boarding US-bound flights. In addition, more than 200 people landed in the United States but were denied entry, the document showed.

More than 735 people were pulled aside for questioning by US Customs and Border Protection officers in airports, including 394 legal permanent US residents holding green cards, over the same time period.

Trump said the executive order he signed on Friday was designed to protect the United States 'from foreign terrorist entry.'

The order stopped all refugee admissions for 120 days while government officials determine how to ensure that any refugees admitted do not pose a threat.

The 872 refugees to be admitted this week, under the waivers, were screened using Obama administration procedures, which typically take two years and include several interviews and a background check.

The DHS said on Sunday night that green card holders would be allowed to board US-bound flights, but would be subjected to additional scrutiny upon arrival.

The public guidance from DHS also said some people from the seven majority-Muslim countries could be allowed entry to the United States on a case-by-case basis.

Congressional Democrats and some foreign countries, including key US allies, put pressure on Trump on Monday over the executive order.

Democratic Senators tried to force a vote on a bill to rescind the order, but were blocked by a Republican lawmaker. 

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said she had 27 co-sponsors for the legislation. But under Senate rules it takes only one member to prevent a vote, and Republican Senator Tom Cotton blocked consideration of the measure.

The Democrats' leader in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, said he would bring legislation on Monday evening seeking to end the ban, although the measure stood little chance of being passed by the Republican-led Congress.


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Press Association Mediapoint


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:53 PM BST 


NO CRITICISM FROM THERESA MAY OVER DONALD TRUMP'S MOVE TO BAR REFUGEES FROM US


BYLINE: Andrew Woodcock, Press Association Political Editor, in Ankara, Turkey


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 848 words


Theresa May has failed to condemn Donald Trump's widely criticised ban on refugees entering the United States.

The Prime Minister initially dodged questions about her view on the controversial move but later when pressed insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

But during a joint press conference in Ankara, her Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim hit out at the ban, warning the US that building a wall would not solve the crisis. 

Mrs May told reporters: ``The United States is responsible for the United States policy on refugees.

``The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria.''

The US president has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months but blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop ``radical Islamic terrorists''.

A 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations has been imposed.

Asked about the changes made by the president, who Mrs May held talks with in Washington on Friday, the PM focused on the action taken by the UK to help refugees.

Pressed a second time, Mrs May failed to answer, only finally addressing the question when reporters shouted out ``what about the US?''

Mr Yildirim said the only way to tackle the refugee crisis was to deal with the reasons they were fleeing.

He said: ``You cannot solve this issue of refugees by putting up walls. You have to eradicate the root causes of this. You have to eradicate the regional discrepancies in terms of development.

``You should settle the regional conflicts. There should be more effort under the auspices of the United Nations.

``So, you can put up a wall and the next day that wall can collapse, as in the case of the Berlin wall.

``Why? Because you cannot stand against change. You should always go along with change and you cannot turn a blind eye to the regional problems.''

German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel and French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault have spoken out about the ban.

Mr Ayrault said the move ``can only worry us'', adding: ``We have signed international obligations, so welcoming refugees fleeing war and oppression forms part of our duties.

``There are many other issues that worry us.''

Mr Gabriel said offering refuge to people fleeing persecution was part of the western values that Europe and the United States share.

``Love thy neighbour is part of this tradition, the act of helping others,'' he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron attacked the PM for refusing to condemn the ban.

He said: ``Theresa May has failed to criticise President Trump for turning away and banning refugees whose only crime is to believe in a different religion.

``Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on.

``Perhaps she feels in a weak position on Syrian refugees because her own record on this is so lamentable.

``More likely it is because she is so desperate for a trade deal at any price after her decision to haul Britain out of the world's largest market that she will turn a blind eye to anything.

``At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal. They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way.

``If Theresa May would stay in the single market none of this humiliation would be necessary.''

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Prime Minister should have stood up for British values and condemned President Trump's actions.

He said: ``President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

``Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

``After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain.''

Labour MP Yvette Cooper has written to the Prime Minister calling for her to say if she raised concerns about Mr Trump's declarations about refugees during their talks, which happened on Holocaust Memorial Day.

She wrote: ``I am writing to ask ... whether you or your Government have raised concern about the President's approach to refugees or to Muslims, and whether you or your ministers will now urge him to reconsider his position.

``You will understand how important it is for people in the United Kingdom to know that when our Prime Minister talks on Holocaust Memorial Day about things we have in common with the President of the United States, you are not talking about or condoning in any way the deeply troubling measures that President Trump has introduced.''


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 12, 2017 Sunday 11:35 PM GMT 


Young people less likely to view refugees as major threat, survey finds;
Majority of Americans aged over 65view refugees coming into the US as amajor threat, compared withless than a thirdof people younger than 35, according to findings


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: AMERICAS; Version:1


LENGTH: 666 words


Young people in the US are less likely to view Iraqi and Syrian refugees as a danger to the country,asurvey hasrevealed.

Six out of 10 Americans aged over 65

view large numbers of refugees from Iraq and Syria coming into the US as a major threat

, compared with 

less than a third (31 per cent) of people younger than 35.

The survey, conducted by Pew Research in January, meanwhile reveals that nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of under 35s believe these refugees are "not a threat", while 11 per cent of those aged between 50 and 64 and just eight per cent of people over 65 considered this to be the case.

Young people less likely to view Iraqi, Syrian refugees as major threat to U.S. https://t.co/NwfY8z3y5Mpic.twitter.com/MPn7DnGsHH

- Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) March 12, 2017

Overall, 46 per cent of the public said "a large number of refugees leaving countries such as Iraq and Syria" was a major threat to the well-being of the US, while about a third (35 per cent) considered this a minor threat and 16 per cent said it was not a threat at all.

This marks a decrease in the presumed threat over the past 10 months, with the share of adults who said refugees from Iraq and Syria posed a major threat falling by nine percentage points between April 2016 and last month,especially among younger adults.

The survey also showed high school students were considerably more likely than college graduates or post grads to consider refugees as a danger to the US, with exactly half of them considering it a major threat compared to 35 per cent of the older age group.

In terms of political leaning, about twice as many Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (63 per cent) as Democrats and Democratic leaners (30 per cent) said they considered refugees to be a major threat to the country.

Young people do not view Iraqi, Syrian #refugees as threat to US @pewresearch#refugeeswelcomepic.twitter.com/1x2b3Imu6F

- CMS New York (@CMSnewyork) February 7, 2017

Ideological differences were even more pronounced, with 70 per cent of conservative Republicans and Republican leaners saying refugees represented a major threat, compared with just 19 per cent of liberal Democrats and Democratic leaners.

Fewer than half of Republicans younger than 35 (45 per cent) said these refugees were a major threat, compared with 78 per cent of Republicans aged 65 and older, while among Democrats, just 21 per cent of those younger than 35 saw refugees as a major threat, compared with

41 per cent

of those 65 and older.

Read more

Donald Trump's new travel ban suffers first legal setback

Trump travel ban could prevent USA from hosting 2026 World Cup

Bernie Sanders: Trump's new travel ban is 'ammunition for terrorists'

Trump calls refugees US agreed to resettle 'illegal immigrants'

Divisions over attitudestowards refugees appear to have widened in the US since Donald Trump took office. Vast crowdshaveattended marches and protests across the countryin support of those fleeing conflict.Meanwhile the Trump administration has maintained arelentlessanti-refugee sentiment.

Mr Trump signed an executive orderin late January thatbanned entry to the US for 90 days by citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen andindefinitely halting refugees from Syria. The so-called travel ban

sparkednumerous lawsuits, including US District Judge JamesRobartin Washington state who blocked the ban on 3 February.

The President issued a new order on Monday that removed Iraq from the list of countries and will temporarily shutdown the refugee programme. Unlike the first order, it will not affect current visa holders and removes language that would give priority to religious minorities.

The new travel ban has alreadysuffered its first legal setback after a federal judge blocked its enforcement against a Syrian family trying to flee the war in their own country.Hawaii filed a lawsuit challenging the new ban on Wednesday, whileother states with Democratic attorneys general are reportedly planning to sue next week.


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The Western Mail


January 31, 2017 Tuesday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


10 calls 'the Donald' has made since becoming US president;
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump called for 'a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States'. He also promised to 'build a great wall on our southern border and make Mexico pay for that wall'. However, when he won the election there was debate over whether the new president might row back a little from those statements. Since taking power on January 20, these are the policies he has actually moved to enact..


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 19


LENGTH: 976 words


¦ Banned people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US...

Mr Trump has blocked immigrants and visa holders from seven countries - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan - from entering the US for 90 days. Announcing his "extreme vetting" plan, he invoked the September 11 attacks. Most of the hijackers on that day were from Saudi Arabia. The rest were from the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon.

There is confusion around the order, but it seems to apply not just to refugees or immigrants seeking entry into the US for the first time, but even to people from those seven countries who hold green cards and are permanent US residents. So if they leave the US, they may not be allowed back in. Green-card holders already in the US are reportedly being advised to postpone plans to travel abroad. The restriction also applies to dual nationals. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called it a "euphemism for discriminating against Muslims". A federal judge issued a temporary halt to the deportation of visa holders or refugees stranded at US airports, after the ACLU filed a lawsuit.

¦ Halted the entire US refugee process...

The US Refugee Admissions Programme has been suspended for 120 days. This suspends refugees' entry into the US and directs officials to determine additional screening "to ensure those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the US". Mr Trump also set a cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted to the US in 2017. Barack Obama had set it at 110,000.

¦ Banned refugees from Syria indefinitely...

Almost five million people have been displaced from Syria since the civil war began - in 2016, 12,587 of them ended up in the US as refugees, said The Guardian. America's Syrian refugee resettlement programme has been called "one of the most important in the world". Trump's order stops refugees' admission from Syria indefinitely.

¦ Withdrawn funding from organisations that provide or discuss abortion...

Another executive order signed by Trump reinstated the so-called "global gag rule", to use the term adopted by its critics. According to Vox, "this is a a policy from previous Republican administrations that blocks federal funding from international family planning organisations that 'either provide abortion or discuss abortion services with their clients.'" ."

Vox reports there's already a law in place to prevent foreign aid from being used to provide abortions. The "global gag rule" goes further by also taking funding from international organisations that discuss abortion services (which could then be privately funded).

The policy was introduced in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Every Democratic president since has rescinded the measure, every Republican has brought it back.

¦ Told Homeland Security to build a wall along the border with Mexico...

This executive order called on the Department of Homeland Security to "take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border." A second order pledges to hire 10,000 more immigration officers.

¦ Advanced the construction of two controversial pipelines...

The Keystone pipeline is being built, running 1,179 miles from Canada to America's Gulf Coast. It would carry petroleum. Construction was halted by Barack Obama in 2015, with concerns over how it squared with a commitment to climate change.

The Dakota Access pipeline would carry crude oil from the state of North Dakota to other parts of the country.

There have been massive protests over its construction after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said the pipeline interfered with their drinking water. And in December, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would explore an alternative route.

Trump signed memoranda that renew the process for constructing both pipelines.

¦ Withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership...

Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP) negotiations began under President Obama. Trump has issued a memorandum that called on the US to pull out of the partnership. The deal had never actually gone into effect in the US.

¦ Told federal agencies to weaken Obamacare...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) was a huge overhaul of the US healthcare systemby Obama's administration. Its aim was to extend health insurance coverage to those in the US that didn't have it (an estimated 15%). It did this by requiring all Americans to have health insurance but offering subsidies to make coverage more affordable.

It also required businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance. Republicans have opposed it saying it imposes too many costs on business and intrudes too far into the lives and affairs of private businesses and individuals. President Trump issued a directive to federal agencies involved in the healthcare system to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" any portion of the Affordable Care Act that creates financial burden on states, individuals or healthcare providers.

He said this should be done "to the maximum extent permitted by law". This order technically does not give these agencies any powers they don't already have - it's been described more as "a planted flag".

¦ Called for a 'great rebuilding of the armed services'...

Trump signed an order that he said would result in "a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States". He called for budget negotiations to acquire new planes, ships and resources.

¦ Frozen hiring by the federal government...

Trump issued a memorandum imposing a freeze on all federal civilian employees "across the board". No vacant positions were allowed to be filled and no new positions could be created "except in limited circumstances".

The memorandum does not apply to military personnel. Trump wants to reduce government debts and decrease the federal workforce's size.


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The Guardian(London)


February 11, 2017 Saturday 1:00 PM GMT 


Thousands of refugees could be barred from US despite ruling on travel ban;
Ninth circuit court's decision does not apply to Trump's effort to cut in half the number of refugees resettled in US each year


BYLINE: Oliver Laughland in New York


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 580 words


Thursday's ninth circuit appellate court ruling to uphold a nationwide restraining order on Donald Trump's controversial travel ban was heralded as a major blow to the administration and a victory for migrant rights advocates and refugee resettlement agencies across the country.

Related: Trump says he is considering 'brand new' immigration order after setback 

In many respects the ruling has left the administration in a state of disarray. Though he had vowed to fight the ruling in court, on Friday, the president said he was considering signing a " brand new " executive order on immigration on travel instead.

Migrants and refugees with valid documentation from the seven targeted Muslim-majority countries have been allowed to enter the United States as the Department of Homeland Security announced last week it would obey the federal court order.

But the restraining order itself only applies to certain sections of Trump's sprawling executive action, and does not apply to the president's directive to vastly curtail the number of refugees resettled in the US each year by more than half.

Trump's executive order, announced two weeks ago, was in stark contrast to Barack Obama's pledge last September to significantly increase the United States's annual resettlement targets to 110,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, which began in October 2016. The state department responded to Obama's order by accelerating the rate of heavily vetted refugee arrivals to meet this target. By the first quarter of 2017, the US had admitted 25,671 refugees, compared with 13,791 the year before.

This increased volume of resettlements is set to collide with elements of Trump's controversial order that have remained intact, namely the decision to limit the annual intake of refugees to 50,000 a year. If the US continues to accept refugees at the rate it has done for the first quarter, it will reach the 50,000 cap by March - meaning the resettlement program will effectively be suspended anyway until October 2017.

David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, one of the largest refugee resettlement agencies working in America, said on Thursday that the appellate court ruling would allow his organisation to "get back to work resettling refugees". But seen in the context of Trump's drastic cap the picture may be more complicated. The latest statistics show that by the end of January 2017 the US had already resettled over 32,000 people.

Related: Federal raids in California raise fears for immigrant communities across US

Questions also remain over the tens of thousands of refugees currently referred by the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, for resettlement to the US. Last year the agency referred a record number of refugees to the federal government, indicative of the magnitude of the world's refugee crisis, which has left more than 65 million people displaced across the world. The average vetting time for these referrals is 18 months to two years to complete - meaning the vast majority are still in the so-called resettlement pipeline. The UN has referred more than 60,000 Syrian refugees to the US for vetting alone. Last year the agency referred more than 7,000 Somalis and 7,000 Iraqis for vetting.

Even if Trump's order is eventually deemed unconstitutional by the supreme court, it will still have the ability to turn down thousands of the world's neediest people from the areas he targeted in the order last month.


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The Guardian


February 2, 2017 Thursday 4:30 AM GMT 


Trump criticises 'dumb deal' with Australia on refugees after fraught call with Turnbull;
· Trump lashes deal to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus · Washington Post says he told Australian PM their conversation was 'worst call'


BYLINE: Katharine Murphy and Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 1293 words


Donald Trump has torn into the US agreement to resettle refugees from Australia's offshore detention centres, calling it a "dumb deal" and describing the refugees as illegal immigrants.

Trump took to Twitter to voice his displeasure at a deal he had pledged to uphold in a phone call with the Australian prime minister on Sunday.

"Do you believe it? The Obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal."

Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017 

Less than two hours previously, the US State Department had insisted the deal was on in response to a Washington Post report of a fraught phone call between Trump and Australia's prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

"President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed," a US embassy spokesperson in Canberra said in a statement.

The deal brokered between former president Barack Obama and Turnbull originally forecast the resettlement of up to 1,250 refugees from Australia's offshore detention islands of Manus Island and Nauru.

According to the Washington Post, Trump told Turnbull the refugee resettlement agreement was "the worst deal ever" and warned he was going to "get killed" politically for it during their one-on-one call last weekend, according to a detailed account of the conversation in the Washington Post.

Related: Donald Trump rages at 'dumb deal' with Australia over refugee resettlement - live

The Post reported that Trump had fumed during his Sunday phone call with the Australian prime minister telling Turnbull he'd spoken to other world leaders on the same day, and this was "this was the worst call by far".

Trump, according to the report, accused Australia of seeking to export the "next Boston bombers".

The report says the friction between the two leaders "reflected Trump's anger over being bound by an agreement reached by the Obama administration to accept refugees from Australian detention sites even while Trump was issuing an executive order suspending such arrivals from elsewhere in the world".

The White House declined to comment on the report on Thursday.

The "one-off" refugee resettlement deal was announced in November with Obama agreeing to take an unspecified number of refugees from Australia's offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.

Both Australian-run detention camps have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN, human rights groups and other nations over systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained, including rapes, beatings and the murder of one asylum seeker by guards; child sexual abuse; chronic rates of self-harm and suicide; dangerous levels of sustained mental illness, harsh conditions and inadequate medical treatment leading to several deaths.

Related: How could 'extreme vetting' apply to refugees from Australia's camps?

The report on the phone call says Turnbull insisted the new administration honour the agreement, and allow refugees to enter the country on the normal vetting arrangements, which prompted Trump to declare they would be subjected to "extreme vetting".

The call, scheduled for an hour, was terminated after 25 minutes, the Post said. The source of the account is attributed as a "senior US official".

Turnbull declined to comment on the report, saying the resettlement deal remained on track and it was best that conversations between leaders remained private.

"I'm not going to comment on the conversation," Turnbull told reporters in Melbourne. "During the course of the conversation, as you know and it was confirmed by the president's official spokesman, the president assured me that he would continue with, honour the agreement we entered into with the Obama administration, with respect to refugee resettlement."

Related: Turnbull says Trump gave him personal assurance of refugee resettlement deal

Asked whether Trump had hung up on him, Turnbull again declined to comment, but he suggested he had argued Australia's corner. "Australians know me very well. I always stand up for Australia in every forum."

The new report significantly intensifies the government's woes over the refugee deal, which has been the subject of confusing accounts out of Washington over the past few days.

The Turnbull government has been at pains to stress the deal is on track despite the contradictory statements out of Washington, and Turnbull has not referenced any tension between the two leaders, despite the fact the deal clearly contradicts Trump's anti-immigrant messaging throughout the presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, Turnbull told the National Press Club: "The Trump administration has committed to progress with the arrangements to honour the deal... that was entered into with the Obama administration, and that was the assurance the president gave me when we spoke on the weekend."

He repeated the formulation again on Thursday. "I received the assurance that I did [on the resettlement deal] from the president himself."

Confusion about the deal has rolled on for days. A statement from the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, said the US had agreed to consider resettlement of 1,250 of the refugees held in Australia's offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru. Most have been on the islands more than three years.

Related: Malcolm Turnbull, stop the mealy-mouthed platitudes and stand up for our values | Kristina Keneally

"The deal specifically deals with 1,250 people, they're mostly in Papua New Guinea, being held... there will be extreme vetting applied to all of them as part and parcel of the deal that was made," Spicer told the White House press corps.

"The president, in accordance with that deal, to honour what had been agreed upon by the United States government ... will go forward."

But Spicer's comment was almost immediately undermined when the ABC's Washington bureau was telephoned by a White House source insisting the agreement was still under consideration and the president had not made a final decision.

On Thursday the State Department issued a separate statement saying that the deal was going ahead. This was backed by the US Embassy in Canberra.

The deal with Australia does not commit the US to unconditionally accepting any number of refugees from Australia's offshore detention islands. The deal only commits the US to allowing refugees to "express an interest" in being resettled in America. Any, even all, refugees may be rejected during the "extreme vetting" process.

Confusion over the exact nature of the deal - which neither government is prepared to reveal - has led to speculation the US could refuse to accept any refugees from the Australian-run offshore detention camps, citing failure at the extreme vetting stage, while still claiming to be "honouring" the deal.

The majority of the refugees held on the detention island by Australia - most for more than three years - are Iranian, one of the nationalities banned under Trump's sweeping immigration bans announced last weekend.

There are also significant cohorts of Iraqis, Somalians, and Sudanese, also banned from entering the US.

Currently, there are about 1,900 people, refugees and asylum seekers, on Australia's two offshore detention islands. The latest Australian government statistics show there are 871 men in detention on Manus Island and 373 people living in the regional processing centre on Nauru. About 700 more refugees sent to Nauru by Australia live in the community on that island. Only refugees - those recognised as having a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country - will be considered for resettlement.


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Daily Record and Sunday Mail


April 28, 2017 Friday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


WhenIwas walking the worldasa refugee, there waspeace, now there's war.. it is not people's fault that they are refugees;
POIGNANT PLEA OAP BEGS FOR SAME COMPASSION SHOWN TO HIM


BYLINE: ANNIE BROWN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 16,17


LENGTH: 671 words


A FORMER resistance fighter who fled to Scotland after World War II believes life is harder for the refugees of today.

Theodor Davidovic, 92, from Serbia, came to Scotland in 1947 after living in tented refugee camps in Europe for more than two years.

A powerful animation has now been produced, narrated by Theodor, which tells the story of how he came to make his home here, settling in Fife. 

The stunning film, made to mark Christian Aid Week's 60th anniversary, calls for refugees to be allowed the same sanctuary given to Theodor.

Around 1089 migrants are believed to have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year. In 2016, the final number believed to have died in the Mediterranean surpassed 5000, which the UN refugee agency said was the "worst annual death toll ever seen".

Theodor said: "When I was walking in the world as a refugee, there was at least peace in the world, but now there is war. It is not people's fault that they are refugees".

Theodor was orphaned when he was eight and at 12, he left school and was sold into the domestic servitude of a wealthy man, where he remained until he was 16.

He added: "When the war broke out, I got my freedom from that slavery."

Theodor joined the resistance movement against the Nazis but fled when he was 20 years old as the royalist Chetniks and Tito's communists wrestled for power after the war.

He said: "I was in camps like you see now in Lebanon and Syria. Tents for two-and-a-half years, from one city to another, from one country to another."

Theodor found himself in refugee camps in Italy and Germany. He said he will never forget the food parcels he received from Christian Aid.

He added: "I feel I owe my life to that. I vowed there and then to do my best as long as I live."

Aged 22, Theodor escaped the refugee camps and found his way to Scotland.

World War II saw the largest scale migration of people to Britain in its history. Working initially as a coal miner, at 26 Theodor met his future wife Betty in a dance hall in Kirkcaldy.

He said: "When I saw her, my legs went weak."

They married in 1953 and now have two sons and four grandchildren.

After running a successful shoe repair business in Edinburgh for 50 years, he retired at the age of 76 to become a full-time carer for Betty.

Theodor said; "I came to Scotland as a refugee in 1947 and I am grateful for the sanctuary and safety that I found and I couldn't have been happier."

He said that same welcome should now be shown to today's refugees.

He said: "I appeal to all the Christians - your Christianity is not only to come and pray and sing hymns. It is to put your belief in actions - helping somebody who needs your help and showing love and compassion to the wider world."

Today, tens of millions of people are forced from their homes by war, conflict and disaster.

Many are forced to make life-threatening journeys in search of a safe place to call home.

While the majority of today's refugees seek sanctuary in Africa, Asia and Latin America, more than one million people have crossed into Europe. With borders across the continent now closed to refugees, thousands are stranded and in need of urgent help.

The numbers of displaced have surpassed those seen after World War II.

Two years after the end of the war, some 850,000 people lived in refugee camps across Europe.

The total number of displaced at the end of 2015 reached 65.3million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Almost one per cent of the world's population is either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee.

Every minute, 24 people are displaced.

Sally Foster-Fulton, head of Christian Aid Scotland, said: "Theodor's lifelong commitment to loving his neighbour is an inspiration to us all.

"Millions of people still have no safe place to call home - men, women and children, our brothers and sisters, forced to conflict, danger and persecution.

"This Christian Aid Week, we invite everyone to join us, standing in solidarity and support with refugees and those living in poverty."


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GRAPHIC: FORCED TO FLEE Theodor as a young manPOWERFUL Scenes from the animated film that shows Theodor's journey from Serbia to ScotlandLOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Theodor and his beloved BettyDESPERATE Refugee mum and child fall into the water from a dinghy after crossing Med to Greece. Picture: Aris Messinis


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FinancialWire


March 27, 2017 Monday


IGAD Summit: UNHCR appeals for continued and strong support to Somalia and countries hosting Somali refugees


LENGTH: 620 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is appealing for support for efforts aimed at bringing greater stability inside Somalia, and to the countries hosting Somali refugees.

Speaking at the IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) Special Summit of Regional Heads of State on durable solutions for the protracted Somali refugee situation in Nairobi, UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, George Okoth-Obbo, commended Somalia's neighbours for their generosity in providing international protection to refugees in spite of their own socio-economic, national security and environmental challenges.
 



"UNHCR is delighted by this unprecedented regional effort that commits to providing collective protection and assistance to Somali refugees. said George Okoth-Obbo, welcoming the outcomes of the Summit.

UNHCR called for global responsibility sharing with the region, where communities have been hosting and sharing limited resources with Somali refugees for years.

The UN Refugee Agency also appealed for the need to preserve asylum space for Somali refugees, unable to return home.

"Countries hosting Somali refugees have to find alternative solutions for them locally, focusing on the socio-economic inclusion of refugees side by side with resilience support for host communities. We invite the countries to also consider local integration, especially for refugees who have integrated, for example, those married to nationals."

Though voluntary returns continue, security, access and absorption limitations restrict the scale of returns to Somalia, at the present moment. Thus, UNHCR highlighted the importance of creating predictable peace, security, social and community conditions, for Somalis in the country and refugees whose decision to return, can thus be more sustainable.

At the same time the summit highlighted that voluntary return is not the exclusive option and has urged heightened international solidarity and responsibility sharing through continued resettlement of Somali refugees and provision of complementary pathways for third country admissions - such as medical evacuation and humanitarian admission programmes, family reunification and opportunities for skilled migration, labour mobility and education.

More than two million Somalis have been displaced in one of the world's most protracted displacement crises. There are an estimated 1 million internally displaced persons within Somalia and 900,000 Somali refugees - many now third generation -in Kenya (324,000), Ethiopia (241,000), Yemen (255,000), Uganda (39,500) and Djibouti (13,000).

George Okoth-Obbo said at the same time, the drought is a serious issue and finding solutions must be accelerated.

"We need to recognise that the region faces new challenges, such as the current drought and food insecurity, gripping the region, threatening starvation and death."

Some 6.2 million people, half of Somalia's population, are in need of humanitarian aid and levels of malnourishment among children are high, with 944'000 children in acute or even severe malnourishment.

Severe drought conditions across the region have led to food crises in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Yemen. Countries are facing the worst drought in 60 years.

UNHCR is urging the need for an immediate scale up of the response to the drought to mitigate and avert famine to reduce its adverse humanitarian impact, including with regard to displacement.

"Time is of the essence and resolute action by humanitarian actors, strongly supported by the international community, is required," UNHCR's Okoth-Obbo emphasized.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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FinancialWire


May 29, 2017 Monday


'All refugees want to go home someday' - UNHCR spokesperson and author Melissa Fleming


LENGTH: 1174 words


"I envy the mountains and the trees and the rocks because they will be able to breathe Daraa's air and I won't." Those were the thoughts going through Doaa Al Zamel, when she and her family reached the Jordanian border. It was November 2012, one year and eight months since the violence in Syria first began. 



Doaa is a refugee from Syria who now lives in Sweden. She survived one of the worst refugee shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea. In August 2014, aboard an overloaded ship carrying more than 500 refugees, Doaa became an unlikely hero.

As Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Melissa Fleming listens to stories of people fleeing for their lives every day. Although she has met many refugees and gotten to know several stories of resilience, when she came across Doaa's story, she couldn't sleep at night.

"Doaa's story is particularly remarkable; the resilience and the strength of the human spirit is so evident through her story that it is one that people are really not just moved by but also inspired by," Ms. Fleming told UN News following a recent event at the UN Bookshop in New York.

War and persecution have driven more people from their homes than at any time since records began, with over 65 million men, women and children now displaced worldwide. According to the latest Global Trends report issued by the UN refugee agency, known as UNHCR, one in every 113 people on earth is either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee.

In order to get away from the idea of refugees as statistics, Ms. Fleming believes in a communication strategy of telling individual human stories. That is why she would "love to tell all 65 million stories of all the forced displaced people in the world."

But it was the powerful story of Doaa that inspired her to write "A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea," which gives a human face to the sheer number of human beings trying to escape to seek better lives.

"Refugees are becoming statistics and throughout the world they are being used to fuel xenophobia because of the large numbers and because of their desperation," Ms. Fleming said.

With the book, she hopes to build "a bridge of empathy" to people, "so they'll start caring and understanding why refugees like Doaa take this kind of risk to come to their countries, why refugees like Doaa deserve our compassion and our help." [embedded content]

VIDEO: 'Doaa's story is particularly remarkable,' says UN refugee agency spokesperson and author Melissa Fleming, as she talks to UN News about her book 'A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea.'

Doaa comes from Daraa, in Syria. After war engulfed her city, tanks rolled in and bombs started falling, she and her family became terrified for their lives and left to Jordan and then to Egypt. Through her story, Ms. Fleming also describes the situation in the neighboring countries which are hosting the majority of refugees, some five million.

"Egypt was one of these countries; when Doaa first arrived with her family, Egypt was a very welcoming place, but then the government changed and it became less so. Like in all the countries that host so many refugees, the refugees struggle because those countries themselves are having their own difficulties. UNHCR is always underfunded and can only provide pretty much the basics. So all the dreams of studying and making a good living, they are not just completely destroyed by the war, but also by the fact of being a refugee in a situation like that," Ms. Fleming explained.

Without a work permit in Egypt, Doaa struggled through day shifts for low wages. The war in Syria that drove her family away was in its fourth year. And the people who once welcomed them in Egypt had become weary of them.

It is also in Egypt that Doaa meets and falls in love with Bassem, a fellow Syrian refugee who convinces her to leave and make the perilous journey across the sea to Europe. "They'd heard from their friends who had already made the journey to Europe that there they could not just be safe, but also she could study and he could find a job," said Ms. Fleming.

"And so he convinced her - even thought she was terrified of the water, because she had a near drowning experience when she was a young girl - to take this journey. They sold everything and paid the smugglers $ 2,500 each, which was a fortune for them, and ended up boarding not a luxury liner as the smugglers promised but a really decrepit, rusty, rundown boat packed with 500 refugees, among them 100 children."

After two days at sea she started to get worried, and on the third day she told Bassem: "We will never reach the shore. We will all sink." The boat sank near Greece; only 11 people survived, enduring four horrible days floating in the sea. One of them was Doaa.

When Ms. Fleming first read about Doaa and baby Masa - who survived four days and nights on a child's floating ring in the middle of the sea with no food and no water and everyone dying around her - she flew to Crete, Greece, to meet her. At the time Doaa was deeply traumatized.

"She lived a nightmare beyond what anyone could possibly imagine. She witnessed the drowning of 500 people, just one after the other before her eyes, including Bassem, who after two days of treading water next to her, slipped from her hands and gave up his struggle." The fact that 19-year-old Doaa and 18-month-old Masa survived is actually "almost miraculous."

Through UNHCR's resettlement programme, which helps resettle refugees in a third country, Doaa was reunited with her family. "We were able to connect them with the Swedish Government and facilitate the move," said Ms. Fleming. "The Swedish Government settled them in a small snowy village where they are now learning Swedish, she is healing from her trauma and now again thinking of her brighter future."

As she says in the book, Doaa still feels the same longing she felt in 2012. "One day, I hope to return to Syria so I can breathe again. Even if just for one day. That would be enough. "

Ms. Fleming said she never met a single refugee who does not want to go back. "All refugees want to go home someday. Some of them may never go home and live there again... they were forced to flee. It's one of the worst things that can happen to you, everything that you treasure and it's not just things, it's community, it's friends, it's atmosphere, it's the type of food, it's memories, it's all been forcibly left behind.

"All refugees long for the chance to be able to go home. I hope one day Doaa will be able to go home and not just go home, but go home to a peaceful Syria, the Syria that has been reconstructed and a Syria that is reconciled with the evils that have happened in the past six years."

The book is set to reach an even wider audience given that Hollywood directors Steven Spielberg and J. J. Abrams plan to turn it into a film. "That means that the telling of this single human story, a remarkable human story... it's something that resonates," Ms. Fleming noted.



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February 17, 2017 Friday


Uganda Burundian refugees reject govt call to return home


LENGTH: 796 words


Text of report in English by Abdulkarim Ssengendo entitled "Come home, Burundi tells exiled nationals" published by state-owned, mass-circulation Ugandan daily The New Vision website on 17 February

The government of Burundi through its Ministry of Internal Affairs and Patriotic Training is ready to welcome Burundians who are exiled as refugees. This was announced by Pascal Barandagiye, the minister of home affairs and patriotic education.

The minister was meeting a group of 34,705 Burundian refugees housed at Nakivale Refugee Settlement Camp. Barandagiye was accompanied by the Burundian ambassador to Uganda, Jean Bosco Barege, and other government officials from both Burundi and Uganda. 

Barandagiye assured Burundians in exile that the situation in Burundi is stable; explaining that what happened in 2015 is over adding that all Burundians at home are waiting to build a peaceful and stable nation. Barandagiye and his team had gone to talk [to] them about repatriation.

He asked the officials of UNCHR and the Ugandan government to work together with Burundi to take back all those who are ready to go. He however told them that the government of Burundi would not force anyone to [go] back home but warned those who are sceptical and reluctant to repatriate that their status as refugees is temporary.

"The purpose of our coming here was to tell you that the government of Burundi is ready to welcome you. We are here telling them to voluntarily go back home for those who feel that they are ready to go. Those who are not ready can still be sensitized till they feel they are ready to go" he said.

Douglas Asiimwe, the officer in charge of refugee protection in the Prime Minister's Office said Uganda welcomes Burundi's idea to repatriate its nationals as a durable solution to refugee problems.

He said once they are ready and feel reasons that led to their going into exile ceased to exist, that Uganda and UNHCR are ready to support the move.

He said they are going to continue to engage with them and build confidence in them to return home.

Police tightens minister's security

Police heavily deployed and guarded Barandagiye to protect him from being attacked by angry refugees. The refugees were first angered by journalists' cameras that started filming and photographing them shortly after the meeting had commenced.

They were again angered by Barandagiye's order that they should only ask questions not giving lamentations and speeches during a question and answer session.

"Don't photograph us, we are going away if they continue taking our pictures" some shouted.

The situation was calmed by Asiimwe who cautioned refugees of their indiscipline and convinced them that the journalists were not from Burundi but from Ugandan and that their presence was for their well-being and would help them get more help from international organizations.

"This is Uganda; you are under our protection and care. As a person in charge of refugees I want to see order here, when you are in Uganda you are under Ugandan laws; in Uganda we are not dis-organized. If you have come to disrupt this meeting you risk being arrested, media has a role of your well-being" Asiimwe warned.

Refugees vow not to return home

Some refugees expressed hesitation to return home. They said some of the things that pushed them out of their country including political discrimination still exist. They also fear persecution, harassment, physical and mental violence, ethnicity discrimination.

"We can't go there since what pushed us to flee is still there, the president is still there in his illegal term, they should have come to tell us that President Nkurunziza has resigned and the killing of soldiers and policemen has stopped, (?then) we can go back" one of the refugees said.

"There is no security in Burundi; it is better we live here in the camp rather than going back" another said.

A few of them especially those who came six years back indicated their readiness to return home.

They also fear targeted albino killings in Burundi, a challenge they said has been there since 2010.

In a four-page document they handed over to the delegation, the refugees added that children who were born in exile since 1965, 1972, 1988 and 1993 were forced to return to Burundi and are homeless because their properties were destroyed and their land was taken by leaders and security officers.

Through UNHCR and the Uganda government, the refugees requested humanitarian organizations that are in charge of defending the international rights of refugees to seriously consider their outcry.

They requested the government of Uganda to keep hosting them.

They were concerned about Burundi's withdrawal from the ICC and attributed this to the increasing killings.

Source: The New Vision website, Kampala, in English 17 Feb 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 4:54 PM GMT 


Government policy on child refugees ignores evidence, charities warn;
The Government denied it was abandoning children


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:1


LENGTH: 510 words


The Government's policy on child refugees appears to be based on "guesswork" rather than actual evidence, charities have warned.

On Tuesday afternoon Conservatives MPs voted down a plan that would have seen the Dubs Scheme - closed down early by ministers earlier this year - effectively re-opened. The plan was defeated by 287 votes to 267. 

The move caused an immediate outpouring of anger from charities and NGOs. Josephine Liebl, Oxfam's humanitarian policy adviser, accused the Government of "closing the door" on children who had fled "terrible violence".

Read more

Government votes down plan to rescue more child refugees

"The Government appears willing to decide the fates of child refugees based on guesswork instead of evidence from the councils responsible for accommodating them," she said.

"Rather than putting in place policies that are in line with the Government's ambition to be a truly Global Britain, it is closing the door on child refugees who have fled terrible violence.

"We urge the Home Secretary to keep this route open and to consider other measures to allow children to join their relatives in the UK and reunite families torn apart by violence."

Lily Caprani, Unicef UK's deputy chief executive said it was "hugely disappointing" that "the Government did not listen to the many MPs who wanted the UK to do more for vulnerable refugee children in Europe".

"Thousands of unaccompanied refugee children have arrived on European shores and now face an uncertain future," she said.

Read more

Officials refuse to explain Trump's '300 refugees' statistic

May 'facing defeat' over her axing of child refugees scheme

Hungarian border guards 'taking selfies with beaten migrants'

Donald Trump threatens to publish personal information of immigrants

"Without legal schemes to relocate unaccompanied refugee children there's an ongoing risk of children being pushed into the dangerous path of smugglers and traffickers.

"This crisis is not going away. This country must not turn away from doing its bit to help the most vulnerable. This includes taking urgent action so that children in Greece, Italy and France who have family waiting in the UK can join their relatives."

The Prime Minister's spokesperson told journalists in Westminster this afternoon that it was "completely wrong to suggest that as we go forward we've closed our doors" to child refugees.

"We made it clear this morning that we didn't support the amendment and that we were proud of what we were doing already in relation to refugees," he said, adding that "it wasn't really about taking in more or fewer children".

The amendment would likely have seen more children taken, however. The Government has argued that councils do not have enough space to take child refugees, but many councils have said they in fact have space.

The amendment called for the Government to check how much space councils had, but the Government rejected it.

The scheme had widelybeen expected to take 3,000 child refugees but the Government said earlier this year thatjust 350 children would be taken under the scheme.


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The Guardian(London)


May 5, 2017 Friday 10:00 AM GMT 


Budget could expand private sponsorship program for refugees;
Turnbull government plans to double spots in Community Proposal Pilot for fee of almost $40,000 but the places will be taken out of its own quota


BYLINE: Gabrielle Chan


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 680 words


Refugees will be able to come into Australia for a fee of almost $40,000 under a private sponsorship program for community organisations, individuals and businesses expected to be expanded in next week's budget.

The Turnbull government is planning to double the places in the Community Proposal Pilot to 1,000, with a fee of $19,000 and a "welfare bond" of $20,000.

But the places will be taken out of the government quota rather than being added to the total refugee spots, effectively subsidising government settlement costs, SBS reports. 

Refugee advocates immediately expressed concern about the places coming out of the existing allocation, suggesting it sounded like a budget measure rather than a humanitarian one.

But the assistant immigration minister, Alex Hawke, said it was a chance for businesses to fulfil their corporate social responsibility rather than a cost-saving measure.

Related: Coalition urged not to target welfare recipients to improve budget woes

"The idea is of course to have that support there provided by business groups who may know refugees in different camps, who they want to bring out [those] who have the skills," Hawke told SBS.

A pilot program for 500 refugees has been trialled since 2013 by the immigration department, which allocated services to five community organisations; AMES (Victoria), Brotherhood of St Laurence (Victoria), Illawarra Multicultural Services (New South Wales), Liverpool Migrant Resource Centre (NSW) and Migrant Resource Centre of South Australia (South Australia).

Under the existing program, a community organisation can sponsor a refugee if it pays the fees of more than $30,000. It must take care of all resettlement costs, including airfares and medical examinations.

Canada has a similar program but refugees who obtain private sponsorship are added to the total government quota to reflect community demand.

Jesuit priest and academic Frank Brennan said the Canadian private sponsorship program allowed refugee advocates to be proactive. But he said it would be unacceptable if a paid refugee place replaced a government supported place.

"Instead of those of us complaining that the government is failing to do more, the Canadian program would have us do it ourselves and get on with it," he told Guardian Australia.

"That is a more accurate way to tap into appropriate level of support for places. But if a... payment was to take away another place, that would be very unacceptable.

"Where in the past, there has been a quota for true humanitarian places, this would privilege connections in the community over those in greatest need."

The founder of refugee advocacy group Welcome to Australia, Brad Chilcott, said it sounded more like a budget savings measure.

"If numbers are taken from the existing program, this is a budget saving measure," he said.

"If there are additional places like the Canadian model, it would be worthwhile to explore further but if the government is going to avoid responsibility to provide settlement support for refugees, this doesn't change much for the better."

Related: Australia urged to accept fresh intake of Syrian refugees

Chilcott said that by all reports, the Canadian program was massively subscribed and the government had to cap the program.

Australia now has 13,750 places in the annual refugee and humanitarian program, as well as the one-off promise for 12,000 extra places to address the Syrian crisis. The numbers are set to rise to 18,750 refugee places from 2018-19. Between November 2015 and January 2017, 40,081 Syrians arrived in Canada.

Brennan warned that paying for places in the refugee quota would undermine the government's moral case that people who arrived by boat should not be advantaged over those in camps with no access to a people smuggler.

"The government needs to be careful, given they have always argued the moral case for punitive measures on boats policy on the grounds that everyone who reached Australia was taking the place of someone with no access to a people smuggler," he said.

"If those places can be bought, it undermines the argument."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 11:06 PM GMT 


Disabled child refugees entry to UK through resettlement scheme suspended by Home Office;
Exclusive: Move condemned as 'marking new low'inGovernment's handling ofcrisis


BYLINE: Harriet Agerholm


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 758 words


The Government has stopped accepting disabled child refugees fleeing war in Syria and other countries because it says it cannot cope with their needs,

The Independent

can reveal.

A flagship government programme to resettle the most vulnerable victims of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa has been partially suspended, meaning children will be left in refugee camps instead of being moved to safety in the UK.

The revelation, condemned as "unthinkable" and "marking a new low" in the Government's handling of the refugee crisis, comes as ministers came under fire for closing down a separate scheme, the Dubs programme, offering sanctuary to lone refugee children in Europe. 

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, was forced to defend the Dubs closure yesterday, but faced criticism for saying that the scheme would "incentivise" children to travel to Europe. The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was "saddened and shocked" by its closure and appeared to compare the Government's position with that of Donald Trump.

Read more

If we turn our backs on child refugees, British values are dead

The crisis affecting the Government's refugee programmes deepened as it emerged that its Vulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme, which is supposed to rehome 3,000 children with their families from countries including Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq, is not accepting young people with complex needs, including disabilities and learning difficulties.

The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which processes applications, said the Home Office had requested it "temporarily limit" requests from people with mobility problems and learning disabilities because there was not "suitable reception capacity" for them.

The Independent

understands the Home Office has been refusing to consider applications from people with disabilities since at least the beginning of January. It is understood that no end date to the suspension has yet been set.

The latest developments come after the Home Affairs Select Committee found last month that accommodation provided for asylum seekers in the UK was a "disgrace", with investigators describing people living in rat and insect-infested housing.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said the revelation about disabled children "represents a new low for the Government" and she will be making further inquiries.

Shantha Barriga, director of Human Rights Watch's disability rights division, said: "Shutting the door on vulnerable children is an affront to British values.

"People with disabilities endure unimaginable hardship during conflict, and many faced huge hurdles in escaping the violence. That the UK now says it's not prepared to accept refugees with disabilities is unthinkable.

"It's an indefensible decision and blatant discrimination. The UK is not simply lacking 'suitable accommodation' in this case, but seems to be lacking political will."

Dr Lisa Doyle, head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said: "The refugees who benefit from the UK's resettlement programmes are by definition the most vulnerable, and refugees with disabilities will often have specific needs.

"While the Refugee Council knows that communities up and down the country are keen to help welcome refugees it appears there is an urgent need for accessible accommodation."

Read more

Government defends closure of child refugee scheme after six months

Andrej Mahecic, the UNHCR's senior external relations manager, said: "The Home Office has requested UNHCR to temporarily limit submissions of cases with special mobility and educational needs.

"We understand that this temporary measure is to assist the Government and local authorities with ensuring that suitable reception capacity is available for these highly vulnerable cases."

A Home Office spokesperson said it was wrong that all refugees with mobility or educational needs were being denied sanctuary. More than 1,000 adults under another refugee scheme - the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement programme - have been brought to the UK.

But the spokeperson added that after discussion with the UNHCR, the Home Office had temporarily paused new referrals of some of the "most complex cases" to itsVulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme. This would allow the Government to ensure those cases were properly accommodated when they arrived, they said.

"We work closely with the UNHCR and local authorities on both schemes and always ensure the necessary care packages are in place as we plan the arrival of vulnerable children and their families."


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FinancialWire


May 22, 2017 Monday


UN refugee chief Grandi in Libya: UNHCR ramping up its humanitarian response


LENGTH: 587 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced today that it is stepping up its presence and programmes in Libya in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis resulting from conflict, insecurity, political instability and a collapsing economy in the North African country. 



Amid the increasing complexity of refugee and migrant movements through and from Libya, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited Tripoli on Sunday (21 May). During his stay, he met refugees and migrants in some of Libya's many detention centres.

"I was shocked at the harsh conditions in which refugees and migrants are held, generally due to lack of resources," Grandi said. "Children, women and men who have suffered so much already should not have to endure such hardship."

Some 300,000 Libyans have been displaced by ongoing conflict. In all, more than 1.3 million people - including internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as vulnerable Libyans, host communities, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers - are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Libya have been affected by the collapse of law and order, absent or insufficient health care assistance, essential medicines, food, safe drinking water, shelter and education. In response to this situation, UNHCR is ramping up its existing humanitarian operations in the country, and is strengthening cooperation with IOM to leverage the respective strengths of both organizations.

"We should not underestimate the challenges of operating in an unstable and volatile environment such as Libya today," Grandi said. "Our ability to access and effectively deliver much needed protection and assistance is a constant challenge. The people we are trying to help and my staff live and work under enormous strain and risks."

In addition to new offices and community development centres for refugees and asylum seekers, UNHCR is also scaling up its presence in places of disembarkation for people rescued or intercepted at sea, in close cooperation with IOM and other partners. At the same time, access and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in detention facilities run by the Libyan authorities will be increased, focusing on lifesaving humanitarian activities and advocating for the release of detained refugees and asylum seekers. In the last year and a half, UNHCR has been able to secure the release of more than 800 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. The UN Refugee Agency is trying to find durable solutions for them.

UNHCR will also boost its programmes to assist Libyan IDPs and host communities who are in dire need of improved access to basic services, which have severely deteriorated as a result of the crisis. Among other activities, small scale community-based projects of immediate impact are envisaged for the benefit of host communities, displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers.

Libya continues to be the main departing point for refugees and migrants seeking to reach Europe. The High Commissioner was accompanied to Tripoli by his newly appointed Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, Vincent Cochetel, who will be coordinating UNHCR's cross-regional response to the complexities of mixed migration movements across the Mediterranean, and by UNHCR's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Amin Awad.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).



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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 29, 2017 Monday 9:07 PM GMT 


One in three refugees on Greek island of Chios has witnessed suicide since arriving, report finds;
Exclusive:Charities urge situation is 'at breaking point'as research shows one in three haswitnessed a suicidal death on island and majority have no access to mental health support


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:2


LENGTH: 1143 words


One in three refugees in camps on the Greek island of Chios haswitnessed a suicide there, an alarming report has revealed.

Research seen exclusively by

The Independent

shows 39 per cent of displaced people living on Chios-of whom there are an estimated 3,782 -have witnessed a death on the island, with 87 per cent of these saying it had occurred due to self-harm or suicide.

One refugee said he saw someone set himself on fire, telling researchers: "I saw one person setting himself on fire, and maybe I'll be the next one. I feel so bad and depressed."

Read more 

Pregnant refugees 'facing unacceptable delays in maternity payments'

Tories plan to change definition of refugees and reduce asylum claims

Charity service withdrawal threatens thousands of refugees in Greece

The report by the Refugee Rights Data Project (RRDP), based on 300 interviews with refugees on Chios, found that seven in ten (71 per cent) respondents had experienced mental health problems since arriving, and that less than a third of them (29 per cent) had been able to access medical care.

The figure was even higher for women, who made up 12 per cent of those interviewed, with 94 per cent of them having experience mental health problems since arriving and less than a third (30 per cent) having been able to access support.

The findings are of particular concernfollowingreports that thousands of refugees in Greece are at risk of losing vital support as charities prepare to withdraw services fromthe country's "hotspot" islands, such as Chios, as changes to EU funding are set to leave them out of contract by the end of July.

While NGOson Greek islandshave until nowreceived millions ofeurosfrom the European Commission's humanitarian division (Echo)to provide services to refugees, the changes will see the allocation of funding, as well as the selection of projects to be funded, become the sole responsibility of the Greek authorities.

Charities on the island have now warned that in the light of the new findings, withdrawals of services will have a "detrimental and inhumane" effect on people's lives, and urged that health, safety and human rights of the displaced people arriving must now be the "highest priority".

Read more

Refugees 'beaten, abused and tear-gassed as they sleep', report shows

As well as concerns over the lack of mental health care to support the large number of refugees with psychological problems, the report revealed issues surrounding safety on the island.

Eighty-five per cent of refugees said they "never feel safe" or "don't feel safe" on Chios, while only three per cent saying they "feel perfectly safe". Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents said they had experienced police violence, and many told researchers the police treated refugees "like animals".

A similar proportion (22 per cent) said they had experienced violence by Greek citizens on Chios, often from anti-immigrant groups staging demos on the island, which have been known toescalate into violence against refugees.

Thirty-seven per cent meanwhile said they had experienced violence by other refugees -often described as the result of exhaustion and tensions in overcrowded camps, combined with an absence of adequate security measures in and around the camps.

Half of the children interviewed were unaccompanied, with nearly three quarters (73 per cent) saying theydidn't feel safe in the camp and more than a quarter (29 per cent) saying they had witnessed someone dying on the island, according to the report.

More than a third of theunder-18sinterviewed were recorded as having experiencedmental health problems, but just 18 per cent had received medical care, and only 17 per cent had been offered access to advice about their rights and possibilities to change their situation. Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) said they had family somewhere in Europe.

The UNHCR estimated that there were 3,782 refugees on the island at the time of the study. Of these,42 per cent were from Syria, 12 per cent from Iraq, nine per cent from Afghanistan and the remaining from a number of other countries including Iran, Palestine, Pakistan and Yemen, according to the report.

The RRDP interviewed approximately 10 per cent of the refugee population on Chios. Of the respondents,88 per cent were male and 12 per cent female, and the average agewas 27, with 10 per cent being children aged 17 of under, including some female minors.

The average time respondents had spent on Chios was three months, with seven per cent having been there for a year or longer, and only a third of respondents residing on the island with family members. Seven in 10 of respondents told researchersthey had family elsewhere in Europe.

Read more

Charity service withdrawal threatens thousands of refugees in Greece

The majority of refugees interviewed said there was a severe lack of access to information, with 86 per cent saying they had no access to information about their legal rights and opportunities to change their situation, while 78 per cent said they couldn't access information about European asylum law and immigration rules.

Almost half (41 per cent) of refugees questioned had not yet been able to submit their asylum application at the time of the study, while five per cent of them had had their application rejected and were awaiting deportation.

Almost all (95 per cent) of respondents said they were unable togo back to their home country due to fears of war, persecution or other. When asked about how they felt about being in Europe currently, seven in 10 said they felt "very bad" or "bad".

Commenting on the findings, Johanna Puhakka, RRDP research coordinator, said it was evidence that the island of Chios is "at breaking point", and urged that the proposals for NGOs to withdraw from providing services was "misguided" and required "urgent" reconsideration.

"Our research indicates that Chios is currently at breaking point. This small island is overcrowded, and the organisations and agencies operating there are clearly struggling to provide some of the most basic services required," said MsPuhakka.

"The decision of humanitarian organisations to withdraw from the island in June therefore appears critically misguided and needs to be urgently reconsidered."

Sarah Story, co-founder of charity Refugee Info Bus, echoed the urgency of the situation, saying: "The health, safety and human rights of the displaced people arriving on Chios must be our highest priority right now.

"Increased resources and services need to be allocated - not reduced. Any further withdrawals of services will have a detrimental and inhumane effect on people's lives on Chios, given that this island is indeed, at breaking point.

She added: "If new services are not introduced, then transfers from Chios to mainland Greece must be accelerated. Moving families and vulnerable people off the island must be urgently prioritised."


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Nottingham Post


April 20, 2017 Thursday


Notts players welcome refugees


BYLINE: By MATT JARRAM


SECTION: NEWS:OTHER; Pg. 22-23


LENGTH: 528 words


NOTTS County FC will be joining football clubs across the country this week to celebrate the contribution refugees have made to football since the Second World War.

Football Welcomes, a weekend of action for football clubs co-ordinated by Amnesty International, marks the 80th anniversary of the arrival in the UK of some of the first refugees to play professional football in Nottingham. 

They were child refugees from the Spanish Civil War, evacuated to the UK after the bombing of Guernica on April 26, 1937.

Supported by a range of Premier League clubs, the English Football League (EFL) and the FA Women's Super League, Football Welcomes also aims to highlight the important role football clubs can play in promoting community cohesion.

Notts County FC will be marking the anniversary with a visit by first-team coaches and players Alan Smith and Shola Ameobi to their project for refugees today.

Other clubs around the country will be offering free tickets for a match to refugees living locally, arranging player visits, stadium tours or organising tournaments for young refugees in their community programmes.

Tim Hatton, senior manager for the event, said: "We've worked with over 100 refugees and asylum seekers from many different countries over the past 15 months.

"Our aim is to help them feel at home in Nottingham and welcomed by their local football club, Notts County FC. As it is a universal language, we use football as the magnet and have a wider impact, such as improving refugees' physical and mental health, as well as ensuring they feel less isolated.

"Our aim is to bring refugees together over a game of football, helping them to make new friends and stay fit. We want to ensure they can make the most of their new lives in Nottingham and have fun at a difficult time in their lives."

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "Refugees have made an important contribution to this much-loved game and their communities throughout the years. We are delighted that so many football clubs, who lie at the heart of these communities, are embracing this. They have a key role to play in helping to promote respect, understanding and integration.

"Eighty years on from the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War, horrific violence is again forcing many people to flee their homes, leaving everything behind as they look for safety elsewhere. We're very pleased to be working with football clubs to help make refugees who have come to the UK feel welcome. This is the first year of Football Welcomes and we'd love it to become a key fixture in the football calendar for years to come."

Football Welcomes is part of Amnesty International's I Welcome campaign for a better international response to the global refugee crisis.

Shaun Harvey, EFL chief executive, said: "The EFL is proud to be supporting Amnesty International's Football Welcomes campaign to recognise the significant and lasting contribution refugees have made to the professional game over the past 80 years.

"Notts County FC Football in the Community's refugee programme highlights how the power of football can have a positive impact on and change people's lives for the better."


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M2 PressWIRE


March 27, 2017 Monday


IGAD Summit: UNHCR appeals for continued and strong support to Somalia and countries hosting Somali refugees


LENGTH: 615 words


March 27, 2017

GENEVA, Switzerland -- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is appealing for support for efforts aimed at bringing greater stability inside Somalia, and to the countries hosting Somali refugees.
 



Speaking at the IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) Special Summit of Regional Heads of State on durable solutions for the protracted Somali refugee situation in Nairobi, UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, George Okoth-Obbo, commended Somalia's neighbours for their generosity in providing international protection to refugees in spite of their own socio-economic, national security and environmental challenges.

"UNHCR is delighted by this unprecedented regional effort that commits to providing collective protection and assistance to Somali refugees. said George Okoth-Obbo, welcoming the outcomes of the Summit.

UNHCR called for global responsibility sharing with the region, where communities have been hosting and sharing limited resources with Somali refugees for years.

The UN Refugee Agency also appealed for the need to preserve asylum space for Somali refugees, unable to return home.

"Countries hosting Somali refugees have to find alternative solutions for them locally, focusing on the socio-economic inclusion of refugees side by side with resilience support for host communities. We invite the countries to also consider local integration, especially for refugees who have integrated, for example, those married to nationals."

Though voluntary returns continue, security, access and absorption limitations restrict the scale of returns to Somalia, at the present moment. Thus, UNHCR highlighted the importance of creating predictable peace, security, social and community conditions, for Somalis in the country and refugees whose decision to return, can thus be more sustainable.

At the same time the summit highlighted that voluntary return is not the exclusive option and has urged heightened international solidarity and responsibility sharing through continued resettlement of Somali refugees and provision of complementary pathways for third country admissions - such as medical evacuation and humanitarian admission programmes, family reunification and opportunities for skilled migration, labour mobility and education.

More than two million Somalis have been displaced in one of the world's most protracted displacement crises. There are an estimated 1 million internally displaced persons within Somalia and 900,000 Somali refugees - many now third generation -in Kenya (324,000), Ethiopia (241,000), Yemen (255,000), Uganda (39,500) and Djibouti (13,000).

George Okoth-Obbo said at the same time, the drought is a serious issue and finding solutions must be accelerated.

"We need to recognise that the region faces new challenges, such as the current drought and food insecurity, gripping the region, threatening starvation and death."

Some 6.2 million people, half of Somalia's population, are in need of humanitarian aid and levels of malnourishment among children are high, with 944'000 children in acute or even severe malnourishment.

Severe drought conditions across the region have led to food crises in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Yemen. Countries are facing the worst drought in 60 years.

UNHCR is urging the need for an immediate scale up of the response to the drought to mitigate and avert famine to reduce its adverse humanitarian impact, including with regard to displacement.

"Time is of the essence and resolute action by humanitarian actors, strongly supported by the international community, is required," UNHCR's Okoth-Obbo emphasized.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).


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MailOnline


March 8, 2017 Wednesday 6:49 PM GMT 


Vermont mayor loses reelection campaign after supporting Syrian refugees coming to his town


BYLINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS and ZOE SZATHMARY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 577 words



A mayor who was handily defeated in his bid for a sixth two-year term said Wednesday that he believes his loss was due to his support for a plan to bring refugees from Syria and Iraq to the economically depressed Vermont city. 

Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras lost Tuesday's four-way race to City Councilor David Allaire, who had campaigned on a platform of healing a community divided by the mayor's refugee plan.

While acknowledging that a number of local issues played a role in the race, Louras said he felt his support for refugee resettlement ultimately cost him re-election.

'Though I wanted to think this was not a referendum on refugee resettlement, I continue to believe, as I've articulated, Rutland is a microcosm of the national conversation on immigration and refugees, and ultimately it was not an election on the issues but an election based on emotions,' Louras said.

Allaire lost to Louras in two other elections,  Seven Days  reported. 

Louras told the website: 'I'm simply wishing him luck and I'm moving on.' 

According to unofficial returns, Allaire claimed 52 per cent of the vote. Also in the race were downtown advocate Michael Coppinger and resident Kam Johnston. The candidates do not run under a party affiliation. 

Louras received 32 per cent of the vote, Coppinger received 13 per cent and Johnston got one per cent,  Vermont Public Radio reports.  

'One of the first things I want to do is restore the trust in City Hall,' Allaire said, standing outside his victory party. 'That's what I'm going to do.'

Last spring, Louras announced a plan to bring up to 100 refugees annually from Syria and Iraq to the city of about 16,500 residents. 

The plan split the community, with many residents eager to greet the newcomers but with others citing concerns the refugees could be security threats or economic burdens.

So far, two families, both with young children, have arrived. 

It's unclear given the changes in the immigration and refugee programs by President Donald Trump's administration how many more will arrive.

Allaire had criticized the way Louras rolled out the program, announcing it last April without getting input from the public and city officials. 

When he announced his candidacy, Allaire said the issue was not with the city taking in refugees but with the secrecy of the program.

He told Seven Days in February: 'We've had a difficult time getting any information from the mayor's office or the refugee resettlement folks. 

'It seems to be all cloak and dagger, behind the scenes.' 

During his campaign, Louras cited the importance of continuity and said his plans to create more jobs and the city's strides in confronting heroin use would be jeopardized by a change in leadership.

But he also said he wasn't sorry if his support for resettling refugees led to his defeat.

'I will say that I have no regrets whatsoever in pushing a refugee resettlement initiative, and if welcoming five children in two families to this community while they were escaping for their lives cost me this election, then I am OK with that,' he said.


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MailOnline


February 25, 2017 Saturday 6:51 PM GMT 


Starbucks' brand perception takes a hit as consumers say they would be less likely to buy its coffee after the company vowed to hire 10,000 refugees 


BYLINE: ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 523 words



 

Starbucks' pledge to hire refugees in response to President Donald Trump's travel ban may end up hurting the company's bottom line.

The Seattle-based coffee chain's 'brand perception' has slipped dramatically since CEO Howard Schultz vowed to hire 10,000 migrants in 75 countries over the next five years, according to the YouGov BrandIndex.

Schultz made the pledge right after Trump's executive order banning entry into the US of nationals from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, and Yemen.

Since then, Trump supporters vowed to boycott Starbucks.

Starbucks isn't the only company that has pledged to hire refugees and absorbed criticism as a result.

Chobani, the Greek yogurt manufacturer, employs 300 refugees in its factories.

The company's CEO, Hamdi Ulukaya, who himself immigrated from Turkey, has embraced a policy of hiring refugees.

As a result, he has received death threats from xenophobic extremists, according to The New York Times.

Other companies have also expressed a readiness to help resettle refugees.

TripAdvisor, Inc. has set aside $5million over the next three years to helping refugees, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Airbnb announced plans to offer free short-term housing for 100,000 refugees and other displaced people in the next four years. It has also pledged $4million to refugee resettlement agencies.

Since the Obama administration reached out to the private sector last year and asked them to do more to provide opportunities for migrants, companies have been hiring them.

Walmart, Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Hilton, and others have hired dozens of refugees, according to Time.

Other companies in the food, farming, hotel, and house-cleaning industry have also hired refugees.

But the apparent backlash has hurt the Starbucks brand.

The YouGov BrandIndex is a 'perception tracker' that asks consumers if they 'heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth' that was either positive or negative.

The index found that Starbucks' rating has dropped by two-thirds since late January, when Schultz announced his new policy.

It should be noted that overall, Starbucks has a positive perception. It just isn't as positive as it was before the end of January.

Two days before the announcement, 30 percent of consumers said they would consider buying from Starbucks the next time they wanted coffee.

Since the announcement, that number has dropped to 24 percent.

'We are in business to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time - whether that neighborhood is in a Red State or a Blue State; a Christian country or a Muslim country; a divided nation or a united nation,' Schultz wrote in a letter to his employees on January 20.

'That will not change. You have my word on that.' 


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


June 25, 2017 Sunday 11:27 AM GMT 


As someone who works with refugees, I know we can do more to help those fleeing war and persecution;
As we come to the end of Refugee Week, we should harness oursense of community and solidarity and show our support to the migrants who need it


BYLINE: Dipti Pardeshi


SECTION: VOICES; Version:3


LENGTH: 507 words


Recently, International Organization for Migration (IOM) was working in Lebanon with a group of Syrian refugees who were to be resettled in the UK. While the parents attended a pre-departure orientation session, we asked the Syrian children to draw what they expect for their future in the UK. Almost all children drew a house and a school. "If we have this, everything will be beautiful," noted 10-year-old Ryiad. "I also hope to make good friends and wish we could have toys and a garden to play in with my little brother." 

Today marks the end of Refugee Week, which is about celebrating the aspirations and hopes of refugees like Ryiad. It is about remembering that despite the different circumstances or places where we come from, our dreams and hopes for a better future unite us.

Across the world, more than 22 million refugees are fleeing from war, conflict, natural disasters, persecution, and intolerance, which arethe principal drivers of these forced movements. Such circumstances understandably lead people to make the decision to leave home in search of safety. Many of these refugees have been stuck in protracted periods of displacement, and are struggling for a chance to start a new life.

Yet not everybody is knocking on Europe's door. Ten countries host more than half of the world's refugees, and nine of the top ten refugee-hosting countriesare in developing regions. Every sixthindividual in Lebanon is a refugee. These countries continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of the responsibility for hosting refugees and wealthier countries like the UK can and should do more.

What is Refugee Week?

In recent weeks, the overwhelming generosity of the British public has been showcased in response to a series of unfolding tragedies. In these dark moments, the British people have poured onto the streets to help those in need, demonstrating remarkable acts of bravery and kindness. The public's spirit of solidarity in the face of suffering is heartening and reminds us of our common humanity.

Read more

I've been looking after a Syrian family in Canada for a year

Reflecting on her future hopes when she moves to the UK, six year old Asmaa from Syria tells us: "I hope to make lots of good friends. It is very important to have good friends in life." Asmaa, like us, takes solace in her community to overcome times of hardship. She too is hopeful for a brighter future.

As we mark the end of this year's Refugee Week, we should reflect on the power of community to help us through periods of adversity. Our ability and willingness to empathise with others and to recognise our shared hopes for the future can help bring us closer together.

The British public have time and time again demonstrated generosity and solidarity in the face of human suffering; let us continue to extend this spirit to the refugees who are in need of our support so they too can get to know and love the British public for who we really are.

Dipti Pardeshi is the chief of mission at the UN Migration Agency, International Organization for Migration UK


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The Guardian(London)


February 7, 2017 Tuesday 10:00 AM GMT 


Refugees crossing into Canada from US on foot despite freezing temperatures;
Uncertainty caused by Trump's policies has pushed asylum seekers to take long, risky routes that in one case cost two Ghanian men several fingers to frostbite


BYLINE: Ashifa Kassam in Toronto


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1058 words


A growing number of asylum seekers are braving freezing cold temperatures to walk into Canada from the US, driven by fears of what Donald Trump's presidency will mean for refugees, advocates say.

Last week, amid the chaos and uncertainty triggered by Trump's travel ban, one agency dedicated to resettling refugees opened an unprecedented 10 refugee claims in one day. Eight of the claimants had walked into Canada in order to avoid detection by border officials.

"They're not crossing at the actual point where there's an immigration and customs offices," said Rita Chahal of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council. "They're walking through prairie fields with lots and lots of deep snow. In Europe we're seeing people in boats; now just imagine a prairie flatland and snow for miles and miles." 

Related: Everything you need to know about the legal showdown over Trump's travel ban

A 2004 pact between Canada and the US, known as the Safe Third Country Agreement, forces most migrants to apply for asylum in the first country in which they arrive. As a result, refugee advocates say they've seen a spike in asylum seekers taking longer, riskier routes to cross the border into Canada and file claims inland, where the agreement does not apply.

More than 7,000 refugee applicants entered Canada by land in 2016, up 63% from the previous year, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. Another 2,000 are believed to have entered irregularly during the same time period, according to figures from Reuters.

The risks being taken by these asylum seekers were laid bare on Christmas eve, when two refugee claimants, Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal, were found trekking through waist-high snow in Manitoba. Their journey into Canada had started in North Dakota with a C$400 cab ride that dropped them within sight of the border.

Mohammed, 24, said he had fled Ghana over fears of being persecuted for being gay and Muslim. After a judge in the US denied his asylum request, he was facing deportation. He met Iyal, 35 and also from Ghana, in the US, and the pair decided to try their luck at making it to Canada.

Woefully underdressed for a winter that ranks among the coldest in recent years, the pair walked for hours, trudging through darkened fields and fighting past brush to make it into Canada. "We didn't feel any sign, but we could feel we are in Canada, because of the cold - very, very intense," Mohammed told Macleans magazine. Disoriented from the cold and suffering severe frostbite, the pair eventually stumbled upon a highway, where a trucker stopped to help them.

Both men ended up in hospital; Mohammed had to have all of his fingers amputated, while Iyal lost all of his fingers except for his thumbs to frostbite.

Their journey - and the increasing frequency with which it's being made - worries Chahal. "We do not, as an organisation want to see anyone lose life or limb while trying to get to safety. We do not want to see an image like what we saw around the world of Alan Kurdi on a prairie field," she said, referring to the three-year-old Syrian boy whose lifeless body was found on a beach in Turkey in 2015.

Since October of this year, Chahal's organisation has opened claims for 118 refugees, compared to 50-70 in a typical year. Forty of those claims were opened in January alone. While the refugees hail from around the world, the majority are from Somalia, Ghana and Djibouti.

Her organisation predicts that refugees will continue to arrive in greater numbers in coming months, partly due to the political climate south of the border. "A comment that we might hear is that they're scared of what's happening in the US. A couple of people have said they watched what happened in the airports last weekend, they were afraid," said Chahal. "They're afraid that they might get put in detention, they might get deported, that they're applications won't be accepted, so they express a lot of fear."

A similar rise in irregular entries seems to be happening in Québec, British Columbia and Ontario, said Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees. Her organisation is one of several calling on the Canadian government to increase the number of refugees Canada accepts - particularly in light of Trump's decision to slash the 2017 intake of refugees from 110,000 to 50,000 - and to withdraw from the agreement that designates the US as a safe country for refugees. 

The pact risks driving refugees further underground, said Dench. "At the moment, one of the byproducts of the agreement is that we create incentives for people to cross irregularly and that gives business to smugglers and puts peoples' lives and their safety at risk."

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Ottawa last week to form a human chain in front of the US embassy in Ottawa, demanding that Canada repeal the agreement, among other things; an online petition has racked up more than 39,000 signatures.

The country's immigration minister, Ahmed Hussen, said the Canadian government currently stands by the Safe Third Country Agreement. In a statement to the Guardian, the ministry said the agreement "remains an important tool for Canada and the US to work together on the orderly handling of refugee claims made in our countries".

Related: 'Turning people away was heart-wrenching': Dubai airport worker on Trump's travel ban

Critics say it fails to reflect the stark situation refugees in the US are currently facing. "It is a fictitious reality to continue to pretend that the US is safe for refugees," said Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada, pointing to the executive order signed by Trump that seeks to temporarily halt the admission of refugees and ban Syrian refugees indefinitely.

In an open letter to Canada's minister of immigration, Amnesty International in Canada and the US joined forces in calling on Canada to strip the US of its designation as a safe country for refugees. "We are strongly of the view that in this context Canada cannot wait to see how things continue to develop in the days and weeks to come," the organisation noted in the letter.

"The situation has become so volatile, so entirely unpredictable and marked by such wholesale disregard for international human rights that to allow the designation of the United States to continue for even another day would be utterly untenable," it added.


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


February 14, 2017 Tuesday


Up to 300 refugees leave Portugal for Northern Europe


LENGTH: 783 words


Text of report by Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias website on 11 February

[Report by Valentina Marcelino: "More Than 200 Refugees Have Already Fled Portugal"]

Portugal has already taken in 957 refugees, however, between 200 and 300 have already left the country. This is not only a Portuguese problem and the European Commission is concerned with "secondary movements" of refugees.

More than 200 refugees, out of the total of 957 who had been welcomed to Portugal under the European Union (EU) agreement of 2015, have already left the country. The total number, which the government refuses to provide, is reportedly near 300, according to information gathered by DN [Diario de Noticias]. The situation has worsened in the last two months, during which at least 100 fled. The European Commission is mindful of the phenomenon, which is not exclusively Portuguese. The Commission spokesman for migrations told DN that "measures were suggested to member states to prevent these movements." 

Refugees are required to remain in the countries where they have been relocated. They lose all their rights under this status and enter into an illegal situation when they leave the intake programmes. Already this past October, with the increase in the number of people fleeing, the Ministry of Domestic Affairs decided to change the way in which funds are distributed to pay the institutions. Instead of the 6,000 euros in European financing being paid in two instalments (half at the beginning, half at the end of the 18-month programme), payments were split up into six instalments. "The goal was to simplify procedures, avoiding subsequent refunds and the settling of accounts," explained the spokesman, who refused, without reason, to provide the exact number of persons who fled. The same occurred with Deputy Minister Eduardo Cabrita's office, which coordinates the intake of refugees.

Only from three of the main intake organizations (Portuguese Council for Refugees [CPR], Jesuit Service for Refugees [SJR], and the Lisbon Municipal City Hall [CML]), 219 people had fled up until yesterday out of a total of 680 they had received. They are mainly Syrians, some Iraqis and Eritreans who had come from refugee centres in Greece and Italy. Entire families have already fled but it is mainly individuals who came alone.

These institutions believe that the main reason behind this decision is the fact that they want to join their families, partially relocated in northern European countries and where there are established colonies of these communities. However, there is also criticism of the resources offered by state organizations to integrate these people, for example, delays in teaching [them] Portuguese and excessive red tape and delays in granting the necessary residency papers. "The great challenge that presents itself is achieving coordination among the various domestic services. There are good intentions but there is no operational capability at the central administrative level to provide speedy responses," underscores Joao Afonso, a CML councilman who holds the Social Benefits portfolio and who coordinates the Municipal Refugee Intake Programme.

The escalating number of departures also worries the police from a security point of view. For one thing, these refugees become illegal immigrants in the EU but mostly it is because these persons, who suffered the horrors of war, many of them having made a tragic crossing of the Mediterranean by boat, are vulnerable and their frustration with the way they are welcomed or are forced to go to countries they do not want can turn them into targets of criminal and terrorist networks.

SJR Director Andre Costa, who received and "lost" the largest number of refugees, believes that these people "do not leave in opposition" to Portugal. They simply leave because their plans for the future have always been northern Europe." His experience says that these refugees who flee "do not feel hostility towards our country. They feel lost. They do not have a community to help them establish roots, which may also not be made easy by the decentralization strategy that was defined by having them scattered in various places nationwide." This administrator is convinced that "there are external incentives for these departures, possibly organized networks."

The European Commission notes that these refugees "do not have the right to live or work in a country other than the intake country" and member states "must immediately inform" the Commission of these departures. "Countries must inform refugees well of their rights and responsibilities," concluded the same official source.

Source: Diario de Noticias website in Portuguese 1437 gmt 11 Feb 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 25, 2017 Wednesday 9:19 PM GMT 


Refugee children suffering dog bites and 'violent' beatings by border police in Balkans;
Minorsas young as 12 being illegally 'pushed back'with force into Serbiafrom Hungary,Croatia and Bulgaria


BYLINE: Lucy Pasha-Robinson


SECTION: EUROPE


LENGTH: 614 words


Refugee and migrant children are routinely suffering dog bites and "violent" beatings by police as they attempt to cross borders along the Balkans route, Save the Children has warned.

Children as young as 12 are being forcefully and unlawfully pushed back into Serbia from Hungary and Croatia, despite having already crossed the border, the charity said.

Up to 100 refugees are arriving in the country each day, with children accounting for 46 per cent of new arrivals. 

Read more

More than 200 refugees drown and freeze to death in first days of 2017

Child refugees in Serbia risk freezing to death as temperatures drop

Rohingya refugees can finally leave the shadows

Freezing weather and snow kills more than 60 people across Europe

"Migrants are being beaten by police and mauled by dogs, having their blankets and shoes stolen. It is a way for police to make the passage as inhospitable as possible," Gemma Parkin, spokesperson for Save the Children, told

The Independent

.

"A whole group of teenagers told me beatings, dog bites and push-backs had become commonplace."

According to the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR), 1,600 migrants have been illegally forced back across borders of Balkan countries since November, leaving those who have arrived in Belgrade "trapped in limbo" and unable to continue their journey.

A homeless refugee in Belgrade is pictured with their toes poking out of their tattered footwear in freezing conditions (

Tatjana

Ristic

/Save the Children)

The charity believes an average of 30 clandestine push-backs are happening each day, with many refugees being denied their right under asylum law to an individual assessment of their need for international protection.

Save the Children warned push-backs were causing more migrants to cross woods and snow-coveredmountains that border Bulgaria to try and continue their journey.

"One Iraqi family with an 8-year-old daughter walked through the night with two blankets between them in -12 temperatures -the girl when she arrived at the aid centre in Belgrade was deeply distressed," Ms Parkin said.

Charities fear Serbia is increasingly becoming a "dumping ground" for refugees and migrants who have been refused access to neighbouring countries.

The Government has been categoric thatit canonly accept 6,000 refugees - an estimated 7,000 are now believed to be in the country.

Since reaching its quota, Serbian officials haveadvised NGOs to desist from providing warm clothes, food and shoes to people outside of official shelters.

Homeless refugees and migrants in Belgrade queue for the one hot meal a day they are given by aid groups (

Tatjana

Ristic

/Save the Children)

Save the Children saidthe measures arecausing a spike in the numbers of refugees sufferingfrostbite in the perishing conditions.

Unaccompanied children as young as eight, many without gloves or proper shoes,continue to sleep rough in Belgrade's abandoned warehouses in freezing temperatures, waiting for smugglers to facilitate an illegal entry into Hungary.

Read more

Why Lily Allen said 'only white men have sexually assaulted me'

An estimated 20 per cent of refugee children in Serbia are unaccompanied and travelling alone.

"In truth the refugee crisis has not abated. It's simply a more dangerous route, especially for children," Jelena Besedic, Save the Children's advocacy manager in Serbia said.

"The EU-Turkey deal has given smugglers a firmer grip on a hugely profitable business, incorporating increasingly dangerous tactics to circumvent authorities."

The migrants are arriving on the Balkans Route, which was officially closed in March 2015 but remains in active use by those hoping to make it to NorthernEurope.


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The Independent - Daily Edition


May 27, 2017 Saturday  
First Edition


FORGOTTEN ONES;
It has been eight months since at least 8,000 refugees were forced out of the Calais Jungle by French authorities last year - but many are still living there, only in far worse conditions


BYLINE: WORDS AND PHOTOS BY EMILY GODDARD


SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 66


LENGTH: 2400 words


Just over six months ago, Mangash was forced to look on through the chaos as the place he had called home for the past two years, the Jungle refugee camp in Calais, was violently razed to the ground by bulldozers and explosive fire. The 33-year-old, who is Pashtun and from Pakistan, has been in Europe for seven years but came to Calais on his planned journey to the UK as a refugee fleeing fierce conflict. He admits that conditions in the Jungle were never perfect but he now sleeps with only a blanket - no tent - wherever he can, in spots that are concealed enough to get some rest before the police come to forcefully move him on. He now says he is ready to go back to Pakistan if he cannot make it to the UK because he cannot withstand the conditions in Calais any longer. 

"It was bad in the Jungle but now it is much worse," he tells The Independent. "There is no help. It would be better if I go to Pakistan. There is more danger in France with the police. I sleep in the forest with a small blanket then the police come to get me out. They come anytime, sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes night. We just have to get up and go. People look at us like animals. We're treated worse than dogs. Dogs are allowed in cars here, but refugees not. We're here because of Western intervention yet people think we are bad. I'm here receiving shoes from other countries, the same countries that started wars in my home."

Mangash is just one of the more than 8,000 refugees who were evacuated from the Jungle when it was closed by French authorities in October last year. While some entered state-run accommodation centres across the country, a large number of displaced people, including hundreds of unaccompanied children, sleep rough without tents in nearby woods or behind huge mounds of rocks in a quarry-type part of an industrial estate. It is widely accepted that the situation is wholly unsustainable among both charities and refugees, but many destitute refugees feel that this is their only option if they want to make the journey to the UK, where they believe they will be able to live a better life.

The threat of police brutality in Calais is palpable - there are multiple reports of beatings and the uninhibited use of tear gas, as is the risk of compromised health, exploitation, abuse and violence. Ill health, in particular, is a sizeable problem. More than 55 per cent of respondents to the latest Refugee Rights Data Project study, which was published last month, said they had experienced a health concern while in the Calais area, and only 50 per cent of those said they had received medical help. Almost half also believe their health issue was the result of violence or exposure to tear gas. One 23-year-old Sudanese man was left permanently blind in his left eye after waiting for five weeks for treatment to have a glass splinter removed from his eye following an attack with bottles by a group of local citizens.

Other health complaints have been caused by the poor and unsanitary living conditions. A report released by Care4Calais last month highlighted that scabies, fungal infections and gum infections are at an all time high. Thomas Chambon, a volunteer with French refugee charity Utopia56, says a shortage of suitable footwear and wet weather has further exacerbated the situation in recent months. "There are big skin problems," he says. "They have wet feet for weeks and they walk so much every day. Their feet are very, very, very bad and they have mushrooms, fungus and infections. The skin problems also spread easily so it is a growing problem."

Beyond the physical disorders, the impact of the crisis is increasingly taking its toll psychologically. This is becoming especially apparent in the numerous, already vulnerable, unaccompanied children desperate to get to the UK. The Refugee Youth Service (RYS) says poor communication and misinformation surrounding the complex family reunification procedures and registration for the Dublin III process causes refugee children's hopes to be "raised and dashed almost instantaneously". The effects have been devastating and the organisation has been providing continued support for minors. It regularly receives calls from children in distress and images of self-harm. The most recent case of self-harm resulted in an ambulance being called for a 17-year-old refugee, who received hospital treatment for his injuries.

"This case of cutting was particularly violent," explains Sabriya Guivy, a legal worker for the RYS, "but it was not the first kid I have seen like this. The travel, the living, it is hard and even when they have legal routes [to the UK] things are not happening soon enough. They feel like they don't have a solution. It is traumatic too seeing your home [the camp] being burned down. That has not helped anything."

The refugees' utter desperation is also extremely obvious in the way they try to find means to travel to the UK. Near to where refugees sleep in the woods, a passing lorry suddenly stops and the driver gets out to inspect the underside of his truck. He opens the back and pulls four teenage refugees from inside. "Immigrants!" the driver yells, gesticulating frantically. The refugees walk off, defeated. It is apparent that this is not the first time they have failed to hide in a lorry that is possibly headed for the border. Further down the same road, another driver is putting fuel in his lorry. Walking past, five teenagers become visible at the rear of the vehicle. They can be seen trying to get in the back.

The UK said last month that it will take in an extra 130 unaccompanied refugee children from Europe after it admitted an "administrative error" caused some of the places being offered by local councils not to be considered as part of the Dubs Amendment scheme. The issue attracted widespread criticism but a statement from Robert Goodwill, the immigration minister, insisted "no eligible child has been refused transfer to the UK as a result of this error". He added: "The Government remains fully committed to the implementation of our commitment under section 67 [of the Immigration Act 2016 also known as the Dubs amendment] to transfer unaccompanied children to the UK from Europe."

However, the situation is getting progressively worse for all refugees, particularly since the catastrophic fire that last month overwhelmed the Grande-Synthe camp, France's first ever internationally recognised refugee shelter that housed 1,500 people near Dunkirk. Perhaps most noticeable is the swelling volume of refugees arriving in Calais. Volunteers who have been away for only a day or two gasp at the numbers during a scheduled aid distribution, coordinated by charities including Help Refugees, Utopia56 and the Refugee Community Kitchen, on a derelict field next to the woods where many refugees sleep.

Utopia56 also delivers aid throughout the night to various locations in Calais. It has seen a marked surge in the demand in recent weeks. "In January we were doing outreach work with two of us in one car with 20 bento boxes of food," Chambon says. "Now each night we make more than 300 bento boxes and there is a bigger distribution run. Two days ago the kitchen made 11 gastro of rice [each contains enough for 60 portions] and all of it is gone."

And aid groups warn that the closure of the notorious Jungle is creating another problem as it gives rise to the inaccurate notion that because the camp has gone, the refugee crisis has also gone. The result is a huge decline in the donations being received, making it tougher to deliver vital support to a growing number of vulnerable people. "Volunteer organisations keep trying to provide some stability, some trust and safety especially for the younger ones, but our resources are running out almost daily," Annie Gavrilescu, regional manager at Help Refugees, tells The Independent. "We can no longer meet basic needs like we used to because the refugees here have become invisible to the public in the UK, the support is dwindling."

Maya Konforti, of local charity L'Auberge des Migrants, lives just 15 minutes from the distribution site and has also witnessed the rapid influx of refugees to Calais in recent weeks, as well as a shift in the nationalities of people arriving. "Since the fire in Dunkirk the numbers have more than doubled," she says. "Before the fire we had a good 100 hundred people but the fire has brought about another 200 to 250 Afghans - most of the Kurdish stayed in Dunkirk. But here we have also Eritrean, Ethiopian too, and a few Sudanese and Pakistani. They [the Afghans] are now outnumbering the Africans here. It's changed the chemistry of the whole place, but so far so good among everyone. The numbers are growing fast and by the day. And I think the numbers will keep on increasing."

As well as her work with L'Auberge, Konforti is one of a small number of local residents that have been opening their doors to the refugees for a short, restorative stay. She runs a rota system, jotting down names in a notebook as refugees flock around her to get on the list. They all hug her and one fondly puts his hand on her shoulder and calls her "mother". He's wearing a hospital bracelet and they talk about how he has just been released from hospital after a four-day stay with kidney stones. Like a mother figure, she tells him he needs to be careful about what he eats.

Konforti feels that any support she can offer is vital for the refugees, who she says are suffering tremendously in what she describes as a horrendously difficult situation. "The situation is really, really dark," she explains. "There are no tents, no toilets, there haven't been any showers in the last three weeks since the eight temporary ones set up locally were dismantled. I take in four or five people each day. I pick them up in my car, we wash all their clothes, they have a good night's sleep in a real bed, make some food and bring them back here [at the distribution site] at about noon. They get to have a real rest. They're like new people after this. It's amazing."

Although the refugee population is decreasing in Dunkirk, as more people make their way to Calais, there are still many, including young families, sleeping in the woods near to where the Grande-Synthe camp once stood. Volunteers hear that a rumour is being spread about the possibility of a new Jungle there and the fear is that this - likely false hope - is what is keeping them from entering state-run accommodation centres for more appropriate shelter and protection. "There are people here who have even come out of state-provided accommodation to sleep in the woods as they are hoping a new Jungle will be here soon," says Niamh Quille, of the Dunkirk Legal Support Team. "It's not the conditions that are drawing them back."

Among the homeless refugees in this northern port town is Abdul, 30, who fled from Pakistan in 2009, leaving behind his wife and grocery business. He spent nine months in the Jungle and then stayed in the Grande-Synthe camp until it was destroyed. He has a brother living in the Birmingham and still hopes to get to the UK. He insists he will not give up despite struggling with the challenging conditions. "It is very bad condition in the woods," he says. "It's so very cold and wet and in the night the police come. They beat us and spray us with tear gas, it hurts. But I want to go to the UK because it is a very good life there. My family and friends live there and the British people have very good hearts but it is very difficult to get to the UK now."

Meanwhile, Karim, 32, an Iraqi Kurdish, travelled back to Dunkirk only days ago after being stopped trying to cross the border into the UK illegally following his arrival in France just three weeks ago. He gets out the paperwork he has been given by the Border Force and asks for advice to make sense of it. He says he will live destitute in the forest again until he can get to the UK. "My mum keeps telling me to come back to Iraq, she is missing me, but I'm going to go to the UK," he explains. "There are some people here, we paid some money and he will take me somewhere and put me inside the car and in the truck. Then we'll try to get to England that way."

Aid organisations warn that the lack of refugee support from authorities is fuelling fears and creating a progressively perilous situation. Gavrilescu of Help Refugees says: "What we're seeing on the ground is the opposite of the authorities' rhetoric. The obstructed legal routes, the instability that creates, the threat of violence they face every night and day, and the inhumane conditions in which refugees in the region are living in is creating fertile ground for smugglers and traffickers to take advantage of people, particularly children."

But as the dust settles on France's most extraordinary battle for the ??lysée Palace in recent history, is the election of Emmanuel Macron a source of fresh hope for refugees in the north of the country? Guivy of the RYS is reservedly optimistic. "After the election there is hope among the refugees," she says. "Kids have been saying to me, 'I don't need to go to the accommodation centre because there's a new president and there's going to be a new Jungle'. I say, 'no, you calm down'. They hope for a new place to stay where they have showers and won't be kicked out by the police. I'm not too optimistic but we can think that maybe he [Macron] will be more of a Merkel character, so we can hope for more decent living for refugees," she says. "Also there is the talk about reshaping the UK agreement so that could change the landscape too."

But until any change results in a more positive environment for refugees, scores of vulnerable people fleeing unthinkable violence and unrest will continue to try to make the journey to the UK through various routes. The draw of what they believe is a better, safer life is too strong to suppress. Adam, 17, from Eritrea arrived in Calais yesterday and is not yet ready to give up on his dream of continuing his education. "It's bad here but I feel safer here than I did in Eritrea. I've come from a bad life. I came by car and by boat. At home I was in the second year of college studying computer science. After I finish studying I will find a job in software development. I'll go to the UK. Everybody here plans to go to the UK. My father is there. I just want to meet my father."


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ENP Newswire


May 23, 2017 Tuesday


-APO-UN refugee chief Grandi in Libya: UNHCR ramping up its humanitarian response


LENGTH: 604 words


Some 300,000 Libyans have been displaced by ongoing conflict.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced today that it is stepping up its presence and programmes in Libya in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis resulting from conflict, insecurity, political instability and a collapsing economy in the North African country.
 



Amid the increasing complexity of refugee and migrant movements through and from Libya, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited Tripoli on Sunday (21 May). During his stay, he met refugees and migrants in some of Libya's many detention centres.

'I was shocked at the harsh conditions in which refugees and migrants are held, generally due to lack of resources,' Grandi said. 'Children, women and men who have suffered so much already should not have to endure such hardship.'

We should not underestimate the challenges of operating in an unstable and volatile environment such as Libya today

Some 300,000 Libyans have been displaced by ongoing conflict. In all, more than 1.3 million people - including internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as vulnerable Libyans, host communities, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers - are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Libya have been affected by the collapse of law and order, absent or insufficient health care assistance, essential medicines, food, safe drinking water, shelter and education. In response to this situation, UNHCR is ramping up its existing humanitarian operations in the country, and is strengthening cooperation with IOM to leverage the respective strengths of both organizations.

'We should not underestimate the challenges of operating in an unstable and volatile environment such as Libya today,' Grandi said. 'Our ability to access and effectively deliver much needed protection and assistance is a constant challenge. The people we are trying to help and my staff live and work under enormous strain and risks.'

In addition to new offices and community development centres for refugees and asylum seekers, UNHCR is also scaling up its presence in places of disembarkation for people rescued or intercepted at sea, in close cooperation with IOM and other partners. At the same time, access and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in detention facilities run by the Libyan authorities will be increased, focusing on lifesaving humanitarian activities and advocating for the release of detained refugees and asylum seekers. In the last year and a half, UNHCR has been able to secure the release of more than 800 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. The UN Refugee Agency is trying to find durable solutions for them.

UNHCR will also boost its programmes to assist Libyan IDPs and host communities who are in dire need of improved access to basic services, which have severely deteriorated as a result of the crisis. Among other activities, small scale community-based projects of immediate impact are envisaged for the benefit of host communities, displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers.

Libya continues to be the main departing point for refugees and migrants seeking to reach Europe. The High Commissioner was accompanied to Tripoli by his newly appointed Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, Vincent Cochetel, who will be coordinating UNHCR's cross-regional response to the complexities of mixed migration movements across the Mediterranean, and by UNHCR's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Amin Awad.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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standard.co.uk


February 14, 2017 Tuesday 9:59 AM GMT 


London landlords urged to open doors and reduce rents to take in refugee families


BYLINE: PIPPA CRERAR


SECTION: LONDON


LENGTH: 532 words


Landlordswere today urged to open their doors to Syrian refugee families over fears that councils were struggling to find enough homes for them.

The Refugees Welcome campaign said that acute housing shortages across London meant the scheme was reliant on private landlords, rather than social housing. 

Town halls have pledged to take in hundreds of Syrians under the official government programme but will only welcome families once homes have been found for them.

Dr Rachael Burke, of Lambeth Welcomes Refugees, called on landlords to accept lower rents because councils paid housing benefit rates which are lower than in the private sector.

Refugees: The Government originally committed to taking in 20,000 people(

Vadim

Ghirda

/AP via World Press Photo)

She said: "We need to find landlords that will take tenants at what is generally around 15 per cent less than the market rate.

"I don't think people particularly know that this is what the hold-up is getting refugees over here from the camps."

In recent months, nine families from refugee camps in Jordan have moved to Lambeth under the vulnerable person resettlement programme.

The borough has agreed to take in up to 23 refugee families.

The Government has pledged to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this parliament, but last week back-tracked on its commitment to admit 3,000 vulnerable children.

Refugees: The Government last week backtracked on a promise to take in 3,000 children(Louisa

Gouliamaki

/AFP)

Katie Barlow, who welcomed the newest refugee family in Lambeth into her Brixton rental flat this week, said: "I will never forget the look of exhaustion and relief on the mother's face as she carried her two-year-old sleeping son through the front door and lay him down on the little children's bed, and the joy I felt that I was able to provide a place where his parents felt he was safe.

Read more

Brexit supporters brand Burnley's metric signposts 'disgraceful'

"Today, for the first time, I feel proud to be a landlady. Landlords have to be willing to take an approximately 15 per cent cut in rental income; but in return they can live with the knowledge that they are helping a vulnerable family resettle away from the horrors and dangers of the ongoing crisis in Syria."

Claire Kober, chairwoman of London Councils, said: "Londoners have already been incredibly generous, but we now need more houses for Syrian refugees to call home.

"If you have an empty property in London that you'd be willing to rent out, I urge you to contact your council.

Read more

Banking executive 'killed over chat with young women about babies'

20,000 anti-Trump demonstrators march in Mexico City

Clive Lewis denies touting for support to topple Corbyn

"You may not have let the property out before but - if it is filled - your generosity could make a huge difference to a refugee family."

The Lambeth Welcomes Refugees group, along with several local churches, the South London Liberal Synagogue in Streatham and members of the South London Islamic Centre, is hosting a welcome party for the newly arrived families this week.

It has invited the Archbishop of Canterbury, along with the refugee family now living in a house in the grounds of Lambeth Palace.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 7, 2017 Friday 11:40 PM GMT 


Calls grow for Trump to change his mind on Syrian refugees after missile strikes;
Amnesty International says Mr Trump 'must immediately revoke the Muslim travel ban and end restrictions on refugees from Syria fleeing the horrors at home.'


BYLINE: Emily Shugerman


SECTION: AMERICAS; Version:2


LENGTH: 507 words


Donald Trump is facing calls toopen US borders to Syrian refugees following the cruise missile attack on an airbase in their homeland.

His former rival for the US presidency, Hillary Clinton, said that 

attacking the country without supporting its refugees was hypocriticaland counterproductive.

"I hope that [the Trump administration] will recognise that we cannot in one breath speak of protecting Syrian babies and in the next close America's doors to them," Ms Clinton told a crowdatan event for Annie's List.

Hercall was echoed by

Margaret

Huang

, the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.

Read more

US threatens further military action against Syrian regime

Donald Trump's air strikes on Syria could be a 'set piece': analyst

War in Syria is foolish - the West should welcome refugees instead

"President Donald Trump said that the attack was prompted by concern for the lives of Syrian civilians, but his administration has shown callous disregard for Syrians attempting to flee for their lives," she said in a statement. "He must immediately revoke the Muslim travel ban and end restrictions on refugees from Syria fleeing the horrors at home."

Palestinian writer and activist Iyadel-Baghdadialsotold

The Independent:

"The logical position of someone who supports the US strikes onAssadshould be to limit his capacity for slaughter, and make him face consequence.

Such a position would also mean treating Syrian refugees humanely, and not demonising them, and of course understanding and appreciating why they became refugees."

Calling the attack "horrible" and "barbaric", Mr Trumpsaid: "It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror."

But activists say that if Mr Trump is serious about helping the Syrian people, he must end his negative rhetoric toward the country's refugees.

Violence between the Assad regime and US-backed rebels has raged since 2011, killing more than 220,000 people and creating more than 4.81 million refugees.

More than a dozen countries

- from Canada to Venezuela - have opened their borders to refugees for resettlement.

Mr Trump, however,has accused Syrian refugees of threatening Americans' safetyand criticised the Obama administration for accepting

12,587 Syrian

 refugees in the last year.

.@POTUS should not add to the suffering of Syrian civilians by continuing to ban refugees from the U.S. https://t.co/pLTWT8DSEJpic.twitter.com/Bbfy1YykeO

- AmnestyInternational (@amnestyusa) April 7, 2017

At a campaign event last year, Mr Trump even went as far as to say he would look in the face ofrefugee children and tell them, "You can't come."

He added that they could be a "Trojan horse" for Isis to get into the US.

After winning the presidency, shortly after taking office, he

signed an executive order banning all refugees from the United States shortly after his inauguration. The order - and a second, revised version - were both blocked by federal judges for unfairly targeting Muslim immigrants.


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thetimes.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:01 AM GMT 


Muslim nations targeted in four-month refugee ban


BYLINE: Rhys Blakely and Boer Deng, Washington | Duncan Geddes


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 680 words


President Trump has barred Syrian refugees from the United States indefinitely under a system of "extreme vetting" on immigrants from countries prone to terrorism.

Mr Trump signed an executive order last night suspending all refugee admissions for four months, with a wider freeze on visas for migrants from seven mainly Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

"We are establishing new vetting measures, to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America," Mr Trump said. "We want to ensure we aren't admitting into our country the very threats that our men and women are fighting overseas." 

The move has prompted a backlash from rights groups, while Google announced this morning that it is recalling staff who have travelled to affected countries from the US.

Mr Trump's tough stance evolved out of one of his most contentious campaign proposals: a call for "a total and complete shutdown" on Muslims being allowed into the US.

The executive order outlined a ban on Syrian refugees until "significant changes" are made, a 120-day suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Programme and a cap of 50,000 refugees in 2017. America took 84,995 refugees in the year to September, including a record 38,901 Muslims.

In future, the order says, priority will be given to refugee applications from members of a persecuted religious minority. Mr Trump singled out Syrian Christians for special treatment in an interview with CBN News.

In a joint statement, the UN refugee agency and International Organization for Migration said: "The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement program is one of the most important in the world.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race."

Rights groups condemned the move and its timing on Holocaust Memorial Day. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Chicago, is considering legal action.

David Miliband, the former Labour minister and president of the International Rescue Committee, said the move was "harmful and hasty". He added: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

Google told the BBC that it had recalled staff who have travelled to affected countries from the US over fears they will not be allowed to return.

Mr Trump also signed an executive order that he said would lead to "a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States - news planes, new ships, new resources and new tools for our men and women in uniform". It was unclear, however, where the funding would come from. Congress would need to approve new investment.

Mr Trump spoke to his Mexican counterpart for an hour yesterday after a row over America's plans to build a wall along its southern border threatened to escalate into a trade war.

The phone call came after President Peña Nieto cancelled a summit with Mr Trump amid an angry Twitter exchange between the two men over who should pay for the wall.

Asked about the conversation during a joint press conference with Theresa May yesterday, Mr Trump said: "I have been very strong on Mexico. I have great respect for Mexico, I love the Mexican people." However, he added: "Mexico . . . has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders. They've made us look foolish."

He and Mr Peña Nieto would "renegotiate our trade deals and renegotiate other aspects of our relationship", he said. Mr Trump has already said that he wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico said that Mr Peña Nieto and Mr Trump had agreed not to talk publicly about the wall and described the call as "constructive and productive".

On Thursday Mr Trump appeared to embrace a proposal by some Republicans to impose a 20 per cent tax on imported goods from Mexico to pay for a wall. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said that the proceeds would pay for the border wall, which would cost at least $12 billion.


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MailOnline


January 16, 2017 Monday 12:25 PM GMT 


More than half of Australia's 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees to be settled in one area of Sydney


BYLINE: STEPHEN JOHNSON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 541 words



 

At least half of the 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to Australia will be settled in a trouble-prone area of southwest Sydney with high unemployment and drug use.

Cabramatta became the heroin capital of Australia during the 1990s, as the children of Vietnamese refugees turned to crime.

Now Fairfield City Council will be home to half of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to Australia, 40 years after Vietnamese boat people first moved there.

Iraqis are already the largest group of new migrants in the area, and are set to entrench their dominance in some of Sydney's poorest suburbs.

The area is home to more than 200,000 people, mainly from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Iraqi-born residents make up more than a third of the recent arrivals, which is more than 10 times the Sydney average of three per cent.

They are even more numerous than the Vietnamese, who make up about a quarter of Fairfield City Council's new residents.  

The council, which last year settled 3000 humanitarian arrivals from Syria and Iraq, has been told it will be doing so again in 2017,  The Sydney Morning Herald reports. 

That means it will be settling 6000 refugees, or half of the 12,000 Syrians and Iraqis coming to Australia to escape war and Islamic State terrorism. 

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils said local governments needed more information on refugees coming to the area.

'In the past, councils have received very limited information on incoming refugees,' the group's president Stephen Bali told Fairfax Media.

Fairfield has settled 75 per cent of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees moving to western Sydney.

The area already has an unemployment rate of 9.1 per cent, which is significantly higher than the national average of 5.6 per cent.

Fairfield City Council was home to 4,312 recently-arrived migrants from Iraq in the 2011 Census but their numbers are expected to grow when data from the 2016 Census is released.

There were only 204 recent arrivals from Syria but those numbers are likely to multiple. 

The area, more than 30 kilometres from central Sydney, is considered to contain some of the world's most ethnically-diverse suburbs.

 It's also had its fair share of crime.

Former councillor Phuong Ngo, a Vietnamese refugee, is serving a life sentence for ordering the killing of New South Wales Labor MP John Newman in 1994, which was considered to be Australia's first political assassination.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last year insisted the Australian government had done extensive background checks on the Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to Australia. 

Former prime minister Tony Abbott announced in September 2015 that Australia would take 12,000 humanitarian refugees from Syria and Iraq, shortly before Malcolm Turnbull took his job.

Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs Zed Seselja confirmed locations had been chosen across Australia to settle the Syrian and Iraqi refugees. 


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The Guardian(London)


March 3, 2017 Friday 2:30 PM GMT 


Demolishing the Calais camp has just made refugees' lives harder;
With food handouts banned, charities like mine face an even more heartbreaking workload. These measures go against the basic principles of humanity


BYLINE: Clare Moseley


SECTION: OPINION; Version:1


LENGTH: 744 words


The demolition of the Calais refugee camp last October did nothing to improve the lives of so many desperate refugees, who now find themselves living destitute on the streets of France and are arriving back in Calais every day. These refugees, many unaccompanied minors, are now living in far worse conditions - the latest punishment inflicted on those living in the streets being the ban on the distribution of food.

Related: Calais mayor bans distribution of food to migrants 

The Calais mayor supports the ban on food distribution in key areas of the town, "even if it is difficult to say so, on a human level", according to the French press. Earlier this month, a French farmer and activist known for helping and providing shelter to refugees was given a suspended (EURO)3,000 fine for aiding illegal arrivals. In Italy a man has been prosecuted for "aiding illegal immigration" when he attempted to drive a pregnant asylum seeker and her family across the border into France.

In Paris, too, there are reports of bans on food distribution in areas of the city, as voluntary organisations are told to move on from certain places. The message is clear - refugees, and those who give up their time and resources to help them, are not welcome. Volunteers' desire to help will now see them fined or prosecuted, as we witness the criminalisation of aiding the most vulnerable members of society.

The state is not only turning its back on those who need our support most - it can now even be criminal for the public to offer food and shelter. This is the latest in a series of austere measures that go against the basic principles of humanity.

As the charities in Calais know, food distribution points serve more than one purpose. Refugees also receive clothes and blankets from our volunteers so that they can survive the freezing nights. They are advised on asylum and immigration, and children receive crucial information about their rights. Refugees with medical issues are given the help they are denied elsewhere.

This is not the time to take a hard line on those ready to help refugees in France and Britain. The obstacles put in the way of dedicated volunteers in Calais and elsewhere highlight the role the UK should be - but is not - playing in helping those in dire need. The UK government has a moral and legal responsibility to follow the Dubs scheme, which was agreed and passed by MPs last year. Yet we have seen the government fail to honour its commitment to take in 3,000 lone children from European refugee camps, only accepting 350 under the scheme.

Related: Farmer given suspended (EURO)3,000 fine for helping migrants enter France

The UK must play its part to ensure sustainable and long-term solutions are in place for refugees, and that this humanitarian crisis does not worsen. We must not stand by as the most vulnerable people are deprived of the basic human rights to food and safety, when we have the means to help them.

Organisations such as my own, Care4Calais, provide on-the-ground, life-saving support to refugees, and estimate that up to 200 are sleeping rough on the streets of Calais. Every day, our volunteers are confronted with heartbreaking moments when refugees share their hopes for a better life. They see Calais as a springboard to a safer home. Many want to reach Britain as their final destination - some because they have family there; while others have fought with the British army in Afghanistan.

Charities warned the authorities that the demolition of the Calais camp would never be a long-term, sustainable solution to this crisis. The past few months have proved us right. Demolition was not a deterrent to refugees who, by definition, have no choice but to flee their homes; rather, it caused them to live in worse squalor on the streets of the town.

The reason charities such as Care4Calais still exist and work hard every day is that the government's argument about pull factors has been proved wrong. When fleeing war or persecution, it does not matter if refugees are fleeing to a camp haphazardly housing thousands, or a town that criminalises helping them. Anything is better than the prospect of death.

Demolishing the camp has not caused refugees to stop striving for a better life, and nor will banning volunteers from providing them with vital necessities. It will just cause more unnecessary suffering to those in need. It is our collective responsibility to secure the dignity and future of those who depend on us.


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telegraph.co.uk


January 30, 2017 Monday 2:04 PM GMT 


Donald Trump's refugee ban will make the world 'less secure,' warns Italian minister 


BYLINE: By Andrea Vogt


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 575 words


Donald Trump's ban on refugees and other travellers fleeing Syria will  make the world "less secure" without improving the migration crisis, an Italian minister has warned.  

Mario Giro, Italy's deputy foreign minister, said Italy would pursue a "reasonable" refugee policy and ignore a populist trend that he described as "polluted by hate".  

"Reporters have asked me, don't you feel like a fish out of water given what is going on in the United States right now and I said, 'it depends on the water, not if the water is contaminated by hate'," Mr. Giro said at a welcoming ceremony for 41 Syrian refugees who arrived in Rome on Monday.   

Italian government and church officials welcomed 41 Syrian refugees on Monday, saying they wanted to show solidarity at a time when the United States is sending refugees awayCredit: Alessandra Tarantino/AP

"Cynicism makes us less secure. Italians understand that. No wall or other enclosures matter if there are no accords with the countries of origin," he added.  

"We already tried this type of politics and we saw it didn't work."  

Italian officials have previously avoided directly criticising Mr. Trump's suspension of the US refugee resettlement program and temporary entry ban on all citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia.   

Mr Giro made the comments as he welcomed the latest group of refugees to arrive in the country under a safe corridors project being piloted in the country. 

The 41 Christian and Muslim refugees mostly from Homs, Aleppo and Damascus landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on a flight from Beirut on Monday morning.  

Haya, a 13 year-old Syrian refugee from Homs, plays with balloons upon her arrival at Rome's Fiumicino international airportCredit:  Alessandra Tarantino/AP

"I am happy to be here, but more happy for my children," said Fatimah Ahmmoud, who arrived with her 13-year-old daughter and 11 year-old-son.

"They can go to school again. They have the chance for a good future."  

Mrs Ahmmoud said the family had lived in a refugee came in Reyhanli, northern Lebanon, after their house in Homs was bombed out.  

Dimitri Shammas, 30, who fled Aleppo two months ago, said he first heard about Mr. Trump's immigration from friends in Syria on Sunday.  

"They said, 'Russia and America are the big powers in this war and yet they are not accepting the refugees the war is causing.' I think it will make the situation worse for America," he said.  

Italy has seen a surge in arrivals of refugees and other migrants since an agreement between the European Union and Turkey closed a route through the  Balkans .  

Over 180,000 migrants estimated to have attempted the sea crossing from Libya to Italy in the past two years.  

The safe corridors project was launched a year ago by Catholic and Protestant charities in collaboration with the Italian government as a way to offer the most vulnerable refugees an alternative to the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing.  

Applicants undergo vetting overseas before being cleared for travel to Italy. Monday's arrivals bring the total up to 540 refugees who have arrived via the program, which relies on charitable funding.    

"Humanitarian corridors are a best practice at the international level that shows safe passage is possible. Integration is possible," said Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Community of Sant'Egidio, one of the charities running the program.  

In numbers | European refugee crisis 2016


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FinancialWire


January 11, 2017 Wednesday


Amid dwnindling donor support, one million displaced Somali refugees grow hopeless, UN agency warns


LENGTH: 552 words


More than one million Somali refugees who have been displaced from their homes for decades are becoming despondent as they continue to be unable to return home and donor support is growing fatigued, according to the United Nations refugee agency. 



"There is a growing sense of helplessness in the camps because people are feeling forgotten," said Mohamed Abdi Affey, the Special Envoy to the Somali refugee situation for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Somali refugee crisis is one of the longest-running in the world, with people who have been displaced for more than 20 years. Some one million live in camps throughout the Horn of Africa, while an additional 1.1 million are displaced within Somalia.

"There has been some real progress in Somalia over the past few months, including the successful organization of elections inside the country," acknowledged the Special Envoy. "What's needed now is to build up infrastructures across the country so refugees do not suffer when they go back."

UNHCR is backing a regional summit, led by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa, which will take place in March to determine lasting solutions for Somali refugees. A proposed regional response would provide continued protection to 262,000 Somali refugees in a camp in Kenya that has been hosting people for more than 20 years. When a decision was made last year to close the camp, UNHCR lobbied the government with a new plan of action and successfully delayed its closure.

"Nobody wants to be a refugee forever. A regional solution is the most viable solution for the Somali situation," said Mr. Affey.

Mr. Affey, who previously served as the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister in Kenya, spoke in Geneva yesterday following a visit to Somalia and to refugee camps in Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda, where 905,060 Somalis live - some since the 1990s. He also visited Yemen last month, where refugees face increasingly desperate conditions in a country torn apart by war.

Because of emergencies elsewhere - particularly in Syria and South Sudan - donors have been unable to continue their support.

"Meanwhile, hunger is growing; meanwhile, frustration is growing; meanwhile, desperation is setting in and people are becoming angry," reported the Special Envoy.

In addition to dwindling food rations, Mr. Affey said that the ongoing drought in East Africa has led to further complications, including limited access to education and skills training, especially for young people.

"Refugees should be skilled enough, trained to prepare them for an eventual return so that they can participate in the reconstruction of their country. So that they don't go back after 30 years without skills - within the camps we must create these conditions and possibilities."

UNHCR began supporting the voluntary return of Somali refugees from Kenya in 2014. Since then, a total of 39,316 have returned. However, Mr. Affey noted that security and socio-economic conditions in many parts of Somalia are not yet where they need to be in order to support large-scale returns. He appealed to the international community to strengthen efforts to build stability in a country that has suffered under more than two decades of armed conflict.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Guardian


February 2, 2017 Thursday 7:34 AM GMT 


Australia struggles to save refugee agreement after Trump's fury at 'dumb deal';
Malcolm Turnbull adamant that resettlement of up to 1,250 refugees detained by Australia will take place, but some officials say privately deal now 'can't survive'


BYLINE: Katharine Murphy in Canberra and Ben Doherty in Sydney


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 1250 words


Australia is scrambling to save its agreement to resettle refugees in the US after Donald Trump raged publicly at "a dumb deal" and told the country's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in private it was the "worst deal ever".

The US president took to Twitter late night in Washington to condemn the refugee swap and brand the asylum seekers held in camps on Nauru and Manus Island "illegal immigrants".

Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017

His intervention came after the Washington Post reported that Trump had despaired of the deal when talking to Turnbull on Sunday (Australian time), told him that the conversation was the worst of his phone calls with world leaders that day, and then abruptly brought the 25-minute call to a close.  

Related: Donald Trump rages at 'dumb deal' with Australia over refugee resettlement - live

Trump's pledge to "study" the agreement forced a public response from the Australian prime minister.

Turnbull dug in, saying emphatically in radio interviews he had a personal commitment from the president "confirmed several times now by the [US] government".

"We have a clear commitment from the president," Turnbull told Melbourne radio station 3AW. "We expect that the commitment will continue."

But a departmental source with knowledge of the deal acknowledged: "It's over. It can't survive ... it was never going to survive Trump's immigration ban."

Details of the angry Trump call came only hours after it was reported that a leaked transcript of a call between the US president and his Mexican counterpart had Trump saying he could send troops south of the border to take care of "bad hombres".

The Associated Press, which cited the leaked transcript, said Trump told Enrique Peña Nieto: "You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared."

The hombres (men) in question are believed to be the drug cartels.

Trump's fury over the Australian deal appeared to be mostly directed at the former president Barack Obama rather than Turnbull. But some US politicians expressed dismay that the new president was threatening the close relationship between the two countries.

As Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee-and as an American-I find this unhinged behavior by @POTUS to PM Turnbull embarrassing & shocking https://t.co/TY3VrrZ9qZ - Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 2, 2017

Trump, according to the Post report, accused Australia of seeking to export the "next Boston bombers".

The report said the friction between the two leaders "reflected Trump's anger over being bound by an agreement reached by the Obama administration to accept refugees from Australian detention sites even while Trump was issuing an executive order suspending such arrivals from elsewhere in the world".

The Post's report said Trump abruptly ended the call with Turnbull but the Australian prime minister denied that element of the report, saying the conversation had ended courteously.

While he declined to be drawn on other details, saying Australia had "very strong standards" about confidentiality when leaders spoke to other leaders, and followed diplomatic protocols, revealing only what had been mutually agreed - Turnbull acknowledged the conversation had been "frank and forthright".

The deal brokered between Obama and Turnbull last November originally forecast the resettlement of up to 1,250 refugees from Australia's offshore detention islands of Manus Island and Nauru.

Related: How could 'extreme vetting' apply to refugees from Australia's camps?

Both Australian-run detention camps have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN, human rights groups and other nations over systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained, including rapes, beatings, and the murder of one asylum seeker by guards; child sexual abuse; chronic rates of self-harm and suicide; dangerous levels of sustained mental illness, harsh conditions and inadequate medical treatment leading to several deaths.

The majority of the refugees held on the detention island by Australia - most for more than three years - are Iranian, one of the nationalities named under Trump's sweeping immigration bans announced last weekend.

There are also significant cohorts of Iraqis, Somalians and Sudanese, also banned from entering the US.

On the detention centre island of Manus Island and Nauru, refugees report widespread disenchantment after more than three years of detention without trial or charge, and another dashed hope of resettlement.

Following Trump's executive order banning refugee intakes from seven Muslim-majority countries, an Iranian teenage refugee on Nauru attempted to hang himself at the processing centre on the island. He was taken by police and held in jail.

One refugee on Nauru, who did not wish to be named for fear of repercussions, told the Guardian: "Everyone has the same feeling: tired and disappointed - no hope and no more patience - for the guys specially, women and the children."

On Manus Island, Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, a refugee who has been held in detention for more than three years, said Trump would humiliate Australia over the deal.

"I wonder how Australian politicians do not see that Trump cannot accept the deal because it would hurt himself politically. He cannot because of ideological reasons. He is building a wall, how can he take the refugees from Australia?"

The chaotic nature of Trump's administration has been revealed in the past few days with contradictory reports of whether the Republican administration would honour the deal struck by Obama.

The deal was confirmed by White House spokesman Sean Spicer, before being walked back hours later in a phone call from another presidential aide. It was then confirmed by the state department, and further by the US embassy in Canberra, before the president's tweet appeared to end any hope the deal could progress.

Earlier in the day, the US state department had insisted the deal was on. "President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed," a US embassy spokesperson in Canberra said in a statement.

Trump's use of the description "illegal immigrants" is loaded and wrong.

Related: Appease or oppose? How the world's nations are reacting to Trump

It is not illegal to arrive in a foreign country without a visa or other documents in order to seek asylum: international law permits it, as does Australian domestic law.

The vast majority of the people held on both of Australia's offshore detention islands have been found to be refugees - that is they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland and they are legally owed protection.

It is unlawful to forcibly return those people to their home country - the principle of non-refoulement.

On Manus Island, of 859 people finally assessed, 669 - 78% - have been found to be refugees, 190 have been found not to have a claim for protection.

On Nauru, of 1,200 refugee status determinations, 983 people, 82%, have been found to be refugees, while 217 were refused refugee status.

The deal with Australia does not commit the US to unconditionally accepting any number of refugees from Australia's offshore detention islands. The deal only commits the US to allowing refugees to "express an interest" in being resettled in America. Any, even all, refugees may be rejected during the "extreme vetting" process.


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MailOnline


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 12:10 AM GMT 


Emotional Kristin Davis breaks down in tears as she makes a political statement in a UN refugee shirt at LAX


BYLINE: BRITTANY VALADEZ FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: TV&SHOWBIZ


LENGTH: 545 words



Many A-list stars have added their voices to protest President Donald Trump's recent executive order restricting immigration and banning Syrian refugees from the U.S. 

And while preparing to leave LAX on Tuesday, emotional Kristin Davis contributed her opinion to the issue, breaking down in tears as she discussed her work with refugees. 

The 51-year-old actress wore a top by a UN-sponsored refugee organisation as she emotionally discussed the potential fallout of Trump's ban.

Scroll down for video 

'I'm very very worried very upset,' she said. 'I've met refugees - they're victims. I don't think we should be blaming them. I have a hope that checks and balances in our government can step forward and rectify the situation.

Comfortable in the sweater emblazoned with the UN Refugee Agency slogan, the star became emotional whilst discussing her work with refugees, having last visited a refugee camp back in December.

'I think that mostly, everyone thinks America's wonderful and in their wildest wildest dreams they get to come here,' she said, her voice breaking. 'It makes me really sad that could change.'

'I think right now we're in a moment of changing chaos,' she added. 'It makes me emotional because I love America and I don't want people to think we're not kind people.

On Twitter, the actress shared a photo of a man holding a sign that said, 'Refugees welcome.'

'#TuesdayMotivation At LAX, where there is a welcoming committee ! Love this SO much, thanks to all of you for standing #WithRefugees,' wrote Kristin. 

The actress joins the many celebrities who are opposed to President Donald Trump's recent immigration policy. 

Trump's executive order prevents non-American citizens from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S. for a limited time.

The order stops the State Department's entire U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days - and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice.

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with.

But the nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year.  

The President noted that America 'will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression,' but won't disregard safety of its citizens, in a statement released on Sunday. 

'America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border.

'America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave.'  

He also pointed out that it wasn't a 'Muslim ban,' as 'over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim,' have not been affected by the policy.  


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thetimes.co.uk


February 18, 2017 Saturday 12:01 AM GMT 


Baking, bikes and beds help ease trauma for refugees;
Volunteer projects across the country have found innovative ways to support migrants


BYLINE: Simon de Bruxelles


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 926 words


The government has abandoned thousands of child refugees who had hoped to find sanctuary in Britain. While Amber Rudd, the home secretary, was closing the door on the so-called Dubs children, however, a loose network of volunteers and small charities has been working to assist them and refugees who are already in Britain. Many volunteers, inspired by their time as unpaid aid workers in the Calais Jungle, have helped to set up schemes enabling refugees to make a new life in Britain.

The projects include a trauma centre in East Sussex, an educational charity for women in Birmingham, free bicycles for asylum seekers in London and bread-baking courses to help refugee women integrate into the workplace. 

All have been set up by volunteers who filled a gap left by mainstream charities struggling to help with the refugee crisis.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was among those who condemned the decision last week to end the Dubs scheme, under which as many as 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees aged up to 15 would have been allowed to come to Britain.

The scheme will be closed after only 350 youngsters have been brought here. A debate on the issue will be held in the Commons on Thursday.

Many of the younger refugees who have made it to Britain are struggling to cope with losing their homes, their families and their identities.Residential centreLilian Simonsson is setting up a residential centre in Lewes, East Sussex. It has been a steep learning curve for the filmmaker. She was volunteering and running a writing workshop for young people in the Jungle when she realised that getting to England was not going to be the end of their problems. She is hoping that many of the staff at the centre will be former refugees.

A pilot project called Enthum House supported by the Sainsbury Trust will care for six 16-to-18 year olds. Ms Simonsson, 41, said: "These are the most vulnerable children because they don't get the support from social services the younger ones do. They are put into hostels and left to fend for themselves. If they are welcomed into a warm and caring and human environment often their trauma gets resolved within a year, but if they are met with a really bureaucratic or hostile environment that trauma prevails."Bike projectThe Bike Project, based in Denmark Hill, south London, has provided 3,150 bicycles for refugees since it was set up four years ago. Jem Stein, 29, its founder, said: "I met a refugee at university and saw the difficulty they have getting around on the £36 they are given to live on each week."

The charity employs seven staff including three bike mechanics and a cycle instructor. Some of the more valuable donated bikes are sold to pay for essential safety equipment such as helmets, lights, reflective jacket, gloves and a lock. The charity also runs courses teaching refugee women how to cycle, giving them a freedom many have never experienced.Dirty GirlsLast year the author Tess Berry-Hart wrote Cargo, a play about refugees set in a dimly lit shipping container. The run at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney sold out. She is looking for a producer for Dirty Girls, a musical about female volunteers who travelled to Calais full of high expectations but little experience.

Ms Berry-Hart said: "Long-term volunteers often spent their life savings or inheritances or have given up jobs and careers to help, but they've been left traumatised and broken through seeing what refugees have gone through and being left in the cold by NGOs. It is about the failure of international aid, the failure of governments, and the love of ordinary people helping ordinary people. There is a libretto called the WTF Chorus which is completely composed of people singing "what the absolute f**k".Just BreadThe E5 Bakehouse in east London has run four courses teaching refugee women how to bake bread. Each eight-week course was attended by eight women.

It was the idea of Andrew Lawton of the Refugee Council and run by volunteers. Mr Lawton said: "Refugee women have often suffered unspeakable violence and loss in their home countries. They arrive in Britain with their lives in tatters. The project was initially set up to help refugee women overcome the barriers they face in finding work, but also in recognition of the social isolation that many refugee women often experience. They are ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances."MeenaMeena is the Pashtu word for love. Liz Clegg, who founded a centre for women and children in the Jungle, is setting up a centre in Handsworth, Birmingham, to help plug some of the gaps left by hard-pressed local authorities.

She said: "Our target group is the same as Calais, which is women and children and in particular unaccompanied children. It's about enabling every child to reach their full potential and to thrive. We can provide English lessons, educational support, homework clubs. It can be very difficult for these children to integrate, we help give them a bit more confidence and independence."Bed for a night . . . or a monthRefugees at Home, which was set up by the former BBC journalist Sara Nathan, matches homeless refugees and asylum seekers with hosts with a spare room. Since it started in February last year it has provided 14,848 nights' sleep.

Ms Nathan said: "Every one is a night not spent on a night bus, on a park bench or exchanging a bed for sex, all the things a person has to do when they are on the street."

The charity has registered and vetted hosts across Britain, mainly in London but also in Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester and Brighton.


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:45 AM GMT 


Trump immigration plan draws criticism: 'Tears are running down the Statue of Liberty';
Trump's plan for 'extreme vetting' measures for refugees seeking to come to the US has prompted responses from politicians, advocates and Mark ZuckerbergTrump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US


BYLINE: Paul Owen in New York and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1295 words


The Statue of Liberty would be weeping, Donald Trump was told on Friday, amidst mounting condemnation of his announcement of draconian new "extreme vetting" measures for refugees seeking to come to the United States.

Related: Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US

Trump gave few details of his plan in a speech at the Pentagon, but it has been widely reported that the order will enact a temporary ban on refugees and suspend visas for immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani campaigner for girls' education who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban at age 15, said she was "heartbroken" that America was "turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work hard in exchange for a fair chance at a new life". 

She added, referring to advance reports that Trump's executive order would include a 120-day ban on refugees being resettled in the US and an indefinite ban on the resettlement of Syrian refugees: "I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Yousafzai gave the example of a girl called Zaynab, "who fled wars in three countries - Somalia, Yemen and Egypt - before she was even 17". Zaynab received a visa to come to the US, she said, where she "learned English, graduated high school and is now in college studying to be a human rights lawyer".

"Zaynab was separated from her little sister when she fled unrest in Egypt," said Yousafzai. "Today her hope of being reunited with her precious sister dims."

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement he was "concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump".

Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said his great-grandparents came to the US from Germany, Austria and Poland and his wife's parents were refugees from China and Vietnam.

"The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that," he said.

He added: "Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation.

"We should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That's who we are. Had we turned away refugees a few decades ago, Priscilla's family wouldn't be here today."

Zuckerberg expressed a hope that Trump would not reverse Barack Obama's decision to allow undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children to work in the US.

Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader in the Senate, said: "Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon.

"Taking in immigrants and refugees is not only humanitarian but has also boosted our economy and created jobs decade after decade. This is one of the most backward and nasty executive orders that the president has issued."

Zoe Lofgren, senior Democrat on the House judiciary, immigration and border security subcommittee, said she was seeking "legal analysis" of Trump's executive order and would issue a "comprehensive review soon".

"It seems clear that the effects of today's orders will be discriminatory and isolationist," Lofgren said. "They are un-American, driven by xenophobia and will damage our nation's standing around the world."

She added: "Perhaps most troubling, today's executive order - issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less - recalls a dark episode in American history. Just over 75 years ago, a ship called the St Louis, carrying nearly a thousand Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, sailed so close to the United States that passengers could see the lights of Miami.

"But rather than welcome these refugees, America turned them away. Many of these Jewish refugees were killed by the Nazis when they were forced to return to Europe.

"Making sure that such a tragedy never happens again became the bedrock of US and international refugee and asylum law and policy. Mr Trump's actions today upend this foundational principle and endanger millions all over the world."

Earlier this week, Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Muslims would be "the sole targets" of Trump's action.

"These orders are a disturbing confirmation of Islamophobic and un-American policy proposals made during the presidential election campaign," he said, as details of his plans were leaked to the press.

"One of our nation's darkest moments was during [the second world war], when we turned away Jewish refugees seeking our protection. We cannot allow religious bigotry to effect our willingness and ability to welcome those fleeing violence and persecution."

Manar Waheed, a former political appointee for the Obama administration, told the Guardian Trump's order was a de facto ban on Muslims that would only serve to alienate key allies across the globe and millions of Muslims living in the US.

"National security and terrorism should be focused on facts of individuals, not blanket assumptions or presumptions or exclusions," said Waheed, who was deputy policy director for immigration at the White House domestic policy council from 2014 until the end of Barack Obama's presidency.

Related: 'Over my dead body': tribe aims to block Trump's border wall on Arizona land

"We're in this moment where Muslim communities are being pushed into the corners of our society... This is discriminating against people based on their faith and national origin".

David Miliband, president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said refugees were "fleeing terror - they are not terrorists".

"At a time when there are more refugees than ever, America must remain true to its core values," the former British foreign secretary said. "America must remain a beacon of hope."

He added: "America has the strongest, most successful resettlement program in the world. Certified by successive administrations, the US resettlement program makes it harder to get to the United States as a refugee than any other route. This is one of many reasons to deplore the hasty decision made today."

The US has probably the most intensive screening process in the world for refugees: it requires they register and interview with the United Nations, which then must refer them to the US.

Refugees who pass this test then interview with state department contractors and have at least two background checks; then they have three fingerprint and photo screenings; then US immigration reviews the case; then homeland security interviews the refugee; then a doctor examines the refugee; and finally several security agencies perform one last check after the refugee has been matched with a resettlement agency. The process takes 18 months to two years.

There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty. America must remain open to people of all faiths & backgrounds. #RefugeesWelcomepic.twitter.com/4LvMiZTRJJ - Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) January 25, 2017

Speaking on Thursday, a day before Trump announced his shift in refugee policy, Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state, quoted the words enshrined beneath the Statue of Liberty. They read: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

"There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty," said Albright, who came to the US as a child when her family fled Nazi persecution. "Today she is weeping because of the actions of President Trump".

Additional reporting by Alan Yuhas in San Francisco


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BBC Monitoring Trans Caucasus Unit
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


April 8, 2017 Saturday


Iran say US strikes on Syria blow to anti-terror efforts


LENGTH: 853 words


Iran's Envoy to the UN Gholamali Khoshroo (Khoshru) has condemned the US air strikes that targeted a Syrian military base, describing them as "dangerous" and "destructive". He said the USA's actions undermine international efforts aimed to end terrorism and violent extremism in Syria. Khoshroo made the remarks at a UN session on 7 April. The following is the text of report in English by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on 8 April; subheading inserted editorially:

New York, 8 April: Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Gholamali Khoshroo [Khoshru] condemned US missile attack on Syria, saying such an irresponsible measure will result in reinforcing terrorism in the region. 

He made the remarks in a UN Friday meeting on global awareness of the tragedies of irregular migrants in the Mediterranean basin, with specific emphasis on Syrian asylum seekers.

The ambassador also lashed out at the illegal US missile strikes against Syria which happened on Thursday night, saying it was a clear instance of an irresponsible and dangerous act that not only emboldens terrorists but forces more people to displacement.

The full text of his address follows:

Mr President,

We believe it is important and timely for the international community to consider and address situations involving refugees, and to do whatever in its power to minimize their plight and suffering.

I would like to raise two basic points which I believe are crucial in how the international community and the UN in particular, should approach the case at hand, and similar ones.

Iran concerned over plight of refugees

Firstly, refugees are subjects of international shared responsibility and protection. Burden-sharing and collaborative responses are highly required in protecting refugees in a systematic manner. The international community and the UN should do their utmost to help and support refugees and their host countries with impartiality and under humanitarian principles. In reality, however, it has not been the case. During recent decades, few developing countries have hosted almost all world refugees by means of their scarce resources and mostly un-noticed. In our case, Iran has hosted millions of refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq for decades. We still continue to do so with minimal to no international support, attention or assistance.

However, in the case of migrants in the Mediterranean basin, a good amount of attention has been paid on how to deal with this problem. While we welcome the seriousness of international community to deal with this specific situation, we remain of the view that all refugees and all countries hosting them deserve similar attention, and all refugees' crises should be dealt with by the international community on an equal footing.

Secondly, it is crucial to recognize that the refugees and asylum seekers are symptoms of deeper problems. The phenomenon of refugees in our region is neither new nor unknown. It is about seven decades that millions of Palestinians have taken refuge in their neighbouring countries, as a result of the Israeli occupation. And today's wave of refugees in the Mediterranean basin, fleeing horrors of war, conflict and violence at home, is the result of foreign intervention and pre-emptive wars ensued by the outbursts of terrorism and extremism.

If the international community wants to take a responsible approach to this issue, it needs to deal with its root causes and to wage a global concerted fight against intervention, occupation as well as terrorism and violent extremism.

US "aggression" on Syria

The illegal missile strikes which happened just last night, is a clear instance of such irresponsible and dangerous acts that not only embolden terrorists but force more people to displacement.

Such unilateral acts of aggression, which is a grave violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the underlying norms of the international law, would also undermine the international initiatives, including those by the UN, to end terrorism and violent extremism in Syria.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is the biggest victim of chemical weapons in the contemporary history and severely condemns any use of chemical weapons, regardless of the perpetrators and victims.

However, we strongly condemn the last night missile attack by the United States on a Syrian air base in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons.

We consider this excuse for unilateral action as dangerous, destructive and a violation of fundamental principles of international law.

Iran believes that such act of aggression, in response to an alleged use of chemical weapons, which its timing, perpetrators and beneficiaries are all suspected, would not only complicate the situation in Syria but in the entire region.

Mr President, the Islamic Republic of Iran remains steadfast in its determination to work with the international community to genuinely tackle the plight caused by violent extremism and terrorism for the innocent children.

0457gmt 8 April, IRNA, ENG, TEXT

Source: Islamic Republic News Agency, Tehran, in English 0454gmt 08 Apr 17


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MailOnline


March 20, 2017 Monday 12:28 AM GMT 


The end of Manus and Nauru: U.S. officials 'collecting fingerprints' from 1,250 asylum seekers ahead of resettlement


BYLINE: CINDY TRAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 562 words



 

Refugees from Australia's offshore detention centres will begin their application process for resettlement in the United States.

Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security will travel to Manus and Nauru Island to collect fingerprints from refugees who have been referred for resettlement consideration.

Documents, obtained by ABC News, were handed to refugees on the island to explain the detailed process for those who had expressed interest in resettlement under the US-Australia refugee deal.

Eligible applicants among the 1,250 asylum seekers will sit through face-to-face interviews after they complete rounds of interviews, security assessments and medical checks.

'It is your obligation to be honest. You will be asked to swear under oath that everything you say during this interview is true,' the documents say.

'To be eligible to the United States as a refugee you must be truthful. Failure to tell the truth can result in a denial of your application.'

Refugees who have not heard back after expressing interest are reassured via the documents that their application was being taken into consideration.

'Your application will not be forgotten or lost. All cases are different and will move through the resettlement process at different speeds,' the document reads. 

'Do not worry if your friends and acquaintances move on to additional steps of the process before you,' it said.

ABC News reported most eligible applicants are from Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan while one third on Manus Island are from Iran.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told Daily Mail Australia in a statement: 'As a matter of policy due to officer safety, DHS does not confirm specific dates regarding refugee officers' travel.

'However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department are continuing the process to consider refugee applicants from Nauru and Papua New Guinea/Manus Island for resettlement to the United States.

'Under normal processing, this involves several steps, including interviews by staff of the Resettlement Support Center, which operates under the auspices of the State Department, followed by interviews by USCIS staff. 

'Refugee applicants of all nationalities who are considered for resettlement to the United States and who are interviewed at various locations around the world are subject to robust biometric and biographic security checks. 

'Coordinating these security checks is a shared responsibility between the State Department and USCIS, in collaboration with the law enforcement and intelligence communities.'

The application comes after US President Donald Trump labelled the arrangement as a 'dumb deal' following his phone call with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this year.

President Trump's controversial executive order to ban immigrants was redrafted to allow 'pre-existing international agreements'.

The US-Australia refugee deal was negotiated between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and former president Barack Obama. 


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The Bolton News


April 5, 2017 Wednesday


'Staggering' disparity in number of refugees settled in Bolton compared to rest of UK


BYLINE: Daniel Holland


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 760 words


MORE than a third of the refugees who arrived in the UK last year under a government scheme were settled in Bolton, it has been revealed.

The borough welcomed 255 refugees from countries including Somalia, Sudan, and DR Congo in 2016/17 - 34 per cent of the total that came to the UK under the Gateway Protection Programme.

But council's leader, Cllr Cliff Morris, says that the allocation system is "unfair and in need of significant reform". 

The Gateway Protection Programme is one of many pathways into the country for refugees and helps to settle up to 750 people per year, 470 of whom come to the North West.

Bolton signed up to the scheme, run by UK Visas and Immigration in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2004 and is one of several local authorities taking part - including five others in Greater Manchester.

CONTINUED n 2

Town hall politicians are now arguing that urgent action needs to be taken to reduce the disproportionate number of refugees coming to Bolton.

Bolton's Conservative leader, Cllr David Greenhalgh, raised the issue at last week's full council meeting and says that "serious questions" need to be asked over why Bolton takes such a high percentage.

And Cllr Morris said: "It is common decency that we do not turn our backs on these refugees, many of whom are children - this is the least we can do.

"The disparity in the number of refugees taken in by Bolton over the years, compared to the rest of the country and particularly the South, is staggering.

"The current system is unfair and in need of significant reform and we will remind the Government of our concerns.

"I believe we must - as a country - help those who are most in need, without having to rely on local authorities just like Bolton, to voluntarily extend a helping hand.

"We carefully considered the resources required to accommodate refugees and it is important to remember that, in helping refugees, the resources required are not funded through local taxes at all."

Bolton Council recovers all costs incurred from the Gateway Protection Programme, last year claiming £500,000 to put back into local services.

Where refugees are allocated under the scheme is dependent on the available housing and resources in the participating boroughs.

Cllr Greenhalgh, said: "Some very serious questions need to be asked of the ruling Labour group as to why they have sat back and allowed Bolton last year to receive well over half the number of refugees placed in the North West from this scheme, which equates to Bolton receiving over a third of the total that came to the UK.

"And in return the council has received £500,000, the equivalent of less than £2,000 per refugee.

"I completely support and am proud of this country's reputation of providing a safe haven for those fleeing persecution, but equally I am also in favour of all councils sharing the impact of new arrivals within their communities.

"At a time when the Labour group are happy to keep reminding the residents of this town how stretched our public services are, they are prepared to allow our health service, our schools, our housing and our social services to be stretched even further with new arrivals."

Cllr Roger Hayes, Bolton Lib Dem leader, said: "I think other authorities should certainly take their fair share.

"Bolton has a long and proud history of providing sanctuary and I am all for offering the hand of friendship for people in real need.

"I am proud that we are doing our bit and 255 is a fairly low number, but there should be a fair distribution."

UKIP group leader, Cllr Sean Hornby, said it is time for other councils "to do their bit".

He added: "I have always said that Bolton should be proud of what it has done, but we have done more than our fair share.

"It is now putting a strain on our schools, our health services, and our housing situation."

It was also revealed at the town hall meeting that Bolton currently houses 1,129 asylum seekers - an allocation that is determined at a national level by Serco - and that that figure is unlikely to change before the end of 2019 due to a lack of available housing.

Cllr Greenhalgh added: "I will also continue to ask questions about the allocation of 1,129 asylum seekers to Bolton, which I believe again is a contract signed by the ruling Labour Group to the detriment of this town.

"I am happy for asylum seekers to come to Bolton to make a fresh start, and they should be welcomed, but it is just not fair that other neighbouring councils take none at all, and that Bolton receives such a huge percentage of the total."


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 9:11 PM GMT 


'Targeting the weakest does not show strength', Angelina Jolie pens op-ed for the New York Times about refugee policy 


BYLINE: JORDAN GASS-POORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 502 words



 

Angelina Jolie wrote a deeply emotional op-ed piece about the refugee crisis for The New York Times.

Jolie's essay was in response to President Donald Trump's immigration ban last week. 

Trump moved to suspend the resettlement of refugees to the United States and deny entry to more than 218 million citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. 

'Refugees are men, women and children caught in the fury of war, or the cross hairs of persecution. 

'Far from being terrorists, they are often the victims of terrorism themselves', she wrote.

The 41-year-old spoke out against Trump's controversial order, writing that the United State's response to the refugee crisis should be 'based on facts, not fear'.

'It is simply not true that our borders are overrun or that refugees are admitted to the United States without close scrutiny.

'Refugees are in fact subject to the highest level of screening of any category of traveler to the United States. 

'This includes months of interviews, and security checks carried out by the F.B.I., the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department', Jolie wrote.

Jolie is the special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

She has worked with the agency since 2001 and has carried out more than 50 missions for them.  

The Oscar-winning actress has devoted massive amounts of time and money to helping refugees since she witnessed the atrocities in Cambodia while filming Tomb Raider in 2001.  

Jolie wrote that she is proud to live in a country that has a history of lending its support and resources to refugees. 

'Americans have shed blood to defend the idea that human rights transcend culture, geography, ethnicity and religion. 

'The decision to suspend the resettlement of refugees to the United States and deny entry to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries has been met with shock by our friends around the world precisely because of this record.'

While the safety of the US amid threats of terrorism should be a priority, Trump's executive order is not the solution.

The cause is especially close to Jolie's heart.

'As the mother of six children, who were all born in foreign lands and are proud American citizens, I very much want our country to be safe for them, and all our nation's children.

'But I also want to know that refugee children who qualify for asylum will always have a chance to plead their case to a compassionate America. And that we can manage our security without writing off citizens of entire countries - even babies - as unsafe to visit our country by virtue of geography or religion'.   

Jolie adopted three of her and Brad Pitt's six children from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam.

Her father, actor Jon Voight, was a vocal Trump supporter throughout his presidential campaign. 


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FinancialWire


May 18, 2017 Thursday


Uganda: over 900,000 South Sudanese refugees are in need of humanitarian aid


LENGTH: 625 words


GENEVA, Switzerland -- "They just slaughter you, whether you're a man, woman, or child. I lost all my brothers and my relatives. Life here is very difficult. With no man, nobody helps you." Maria* (not her real name), is just one of hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled to northern Uganda since July 2016, following renewed violence in South Sudan. Over 630,000 refugees have since arrived in Uganda and thousands continue to arrive every week, bringing the total South Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers to over 900,000. Uganda now hosts more refugees than anywhere else in Africa, accepting more refugees than the whole of Europe granted asylum to in 2016. 



While those arriving are in relatively good health, many have stories of horrific violence in their place of origin or on their journey. The scale of the refugee influx has also pushed Uganda's progressive refugee policies to the limits, overwhelming reception conditions and the government's ability to respond.

"Despite the large-scale humanitarian mobilization, the emergency response is still far from being sufficient, and many people have been left with insufficient water, food and shelter," says Jean-Luc Anglade, MSF head of mission in Uganda. Many newly arrived refugees are forced to sleep under trees, and delays in food distributions and a lack of potable water have even prompted some refugees to return to South Sudan. In addition, despite over 85% of the new arrivals being women and children, and despite widespread reports of sexual violence in South Sudan, there are very few organisations responding to their specific protection needs. "As the flow of refugees shows no sign of abating, a sustained and long-term effort will be needed to assist these people over the next months, if not years," says Anglade.

In addition to its operations in South Sudan, MSF has been responding to the humanitarian crisis in Uganda since July 2016, with medical and water and sanitation activities. MSF is currently working in four refugee settlements in the north-west, Bidi Bidi, Imvepi, Palorinya and Rhino; providing inpatient and outpatient medical care, maternity care, nutrition, community health surveillance, and water and sanitation. MSF also responded to an influx into Lamwo, on the border with South Sudan after an attack in Pajok, Eastern Equatoria, but has since handed over these activities to other organisations.

Access to water is one of the biggest challenges in the refugee settlements and MSF has been scaling up operations in water support. In Palorinya, MSF produces an average of 2 million liters per day from the River Nile, supporting over 100,000 people. MSF produced a staggering 52,519,000 litres of clean water in Palorinya in April alone.

"There is a never-ending cascade of challenges," says Casey O'Connor, MSF Project Coordinator in Palorinya. "We can treat millions liters of water a day but it all needs to be trucked to water tanks in refugee settlements that are 150-250 square kilometers. After heavy rains, many roads become impassable. This leaves tens of thousands of people without water for days. And in the rainy season, if people can't get clean water, they will resort to using dirty, disease-ridden standing water. This can turn the health status of a population on its head - from relatively healthy to disease outbreak in a matter of days."

In addition to responding to the refugee influx, MSF runs regular programmes in Uganda providing sexual reproductive health services for adolescents in Kasese, HIV/AIDS care for the fishing communities on lakes George and Edward, and viral load services in Arua regional hospital.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).



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FinancialWire


February 8, 2017 Wednesday


UWC, the global education movement, launches campaign to raise 100 scholarships per year for refugee students - US-based campus to participate, if refugee immigration ban is lifted


LENGTH: 821 words


Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina - -- UWC (United World Colleges), the global education movement, has committed to raise funds for 100 scholarships per year for refugee students to attend one of its 17 UWC schools worldwide. The UWC Refugee Initiative has been set up as a concrete response to the challenge many refugees face in gaining access to world-class secondary education due to their politically insecure status. 



"In light of the dramatic escalation in the number of young refugees, there is an urgent need for refugee talent to gain access to world-class education helping them to become tomorrow's leaders of their communities. UWC schools, with their emphasis on education for peace, must set an example and inspire others to open their gates to this underserved group." - said Jens Waltermann, UWC International's Executive Director.

Founded in 1962 to bridge the divisions and conflicts of the Cold War era by selecting scholarship students from around the world to live and learn together , UWC offers a two-year programme focused on experiential learning, community service and high academic standards. Unlike other international schools, UWC students are selected irrespective of their nationality, religious or ethnic background and socio-economic means, leading to a truly diverse student body supported by a comprehensive scholarship programme.

For many years UWC has educated refugees from countries experiencing serious conflict like Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Western Sahara, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, Colombia and Guatemala. To finance the 100 new scholarships UWC will need to raise $ 7.5 million from foundations and private donors.

The US campus is participating in the UWC Refugee Initiative and plans to increase its admission of refugee scholars in autumn 2017. Dr. Victoria Mora, President of UWC-USA in Montezuma, New Mexico, remarked: " We at the USA campus believe this is an urgent and deeply important initiative. It is not only consistent with our mission, but with our country's longstanding tradition of opportunity for refugees and other immigrants. I am hopeful that the US judicial branch will ultimately see its way to lifting the recent Executive Order on time for us to join the other UWCs in welcoming the refugee scholars to our communities. These refugee students, and our campus communities, can only benefit if this initiative succeeds." As recently reported, other UWC schools, such as UWC Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, have committed to providing additional places at their campuses for Muslim and refugee students.

Laurence Nodder, Head of UWC Robert Bosch College in Germany, explains: "Integrating refugees into national education systems is a challenge many countries face today - like Germany. At UWC we see this challenge as an educational opportunity: our students learn to acknowledge and value their differences while discovering their shared humanity." Maya Alkateb-Chami, a Syrian national based in the US, who has supported UWC in selecting young Syrians for years, added: " Being given a UWC education has changed the lives of 44 Syrian scholarship students UWC has selected since 2010. Coming from a conflict zone as a young adult gives you a different perspective on life and builds your resilience. I believe these students add a lot to any campus they join. We see them grow into leaders on UWC campuses and thrive beyond."

For more information on the Refugee Initiative, visit UWC's website. To read UWC International's official statement on the US Executive Order on immigration click here.

UWC (United World Colleges)

UWC (United World Colleges) is a global education movement that makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. It comprises a network of 17 international schools and colleges on 4 continents, a system of volunteer-run national committees in over 150 countries and over 60,000 alumni. Today, 9,500 students from 155 countries are studying on one of the UWC campuses. Over 65% of UWC students in the final two years receive a full or partial scholarship, enabling admission to a UWC school independent of socio-economic means.

UWC offers a challenging educational experience to a deliberately diverse group of students and places a high value on experiential learning, community service and outdoor activities, which complement high academic standards delivered through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma.

For more information visit www.uwc.org or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

UWC International - Contact details

Hannah Tümpel, Director of Communications and Engagement, UWC International

hannah.tumpel@uwcio.uwc.org - (+44) 7940 320 636

Daniela Lipia, Communications Officer, UWC International

daniela.lipia@uwcio.uwc.org - communications@uwcio.uwc.org- (+44) 20 7269 7806



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The Independent - Daily Edition


January 13, 2017 Friday  
First Edition


Syrian torture victims in UK 'not receiving enough specialist care'


BYLINE: ASHLEY COWBURN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6


LENGTH: 577 words


Syrian torture survivors who have settled in Britain as refugees may not be receiving specialist support and access to mental health services, according to a new Commons report. According to a report by the influential Public Accounts Select Committee more than half of the 2,659 Syrian refugees resettled up to the end of June 2016 are the survivors of torture or violence. But, it adds, only a handful have been referred to specialist organisations for assessment and rehabilitation services. 

Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, called on ministers to undertake a full review of how victims of torture are identified and later supported by local authorities. "It is critical that such people receive specialist support," she added.

"Our committee has previously highlighted the shortcomings in access to mental health services and we call on the Government to ensure a plan is in place to properly support refugees in need of them".

The committee received evidence from Freedom from Torture, a registered charity dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of survivors of torture who seek refuge in the UK. In a statement the charity, however, said it was concerned refugees were not receiving the care they need to recover from their traumatic experiences during Syria's brutal civil war. The charity added: "Despite being the largest torture rehabilitation centre in the country (and one of the largest in the world), only a handful of Syrians from the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme have been referred to us for assessment or rehabilitation services."

The report from the PAC also raises doubts over a pledge by the former Prime Minister David Cameron - in response to the humanitarian crisis in the region during the summer of 2015 - to resettle 20,000 Syrian refuges in Britain by the end of the decade through the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement programme

Despite a concerted effort to resettle 1,000 refugees before Christmas in 2015, the report adds: "Meeting the overall the target, to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in the UK by May 2020, remains a significant challenge."

While local authorities across the UK have already made sufficient indicative pledges of support to house all 20,000 of the expected refugees, there was also "confusion" about the full extent of support they were expected to provide. Failure to provide clarity on this issue "risks the successful delivery of the programme," the report warned.

Ms Hillier said more work was needed to make the resettlement programme "sustainable in the longer-term". The Government should set out "detailed plans" now or risk failing the refugees and undermining public support for the programme, she added.

"It is important to recognise the efforts and achievements of those bodies involved in the early part of this programme, which resettled 1,000 refugees before Christmas 2015," said Ms Hiller. "But there is a long way to go."

Refugee Council director of advocacy Lisa Doyle said: "The Government's target of resettling 20,000 people is more than achievable and local communities and charities like the Refugee Council are standing ready to help.

"What's needed now is an acknowledgement that the global refugee crisis isn't going away any time soon and that a longer-term strategy for refugee resettlement is needed which clearly outlines roles, responsibilities, resources and an ambitious plan for welcoming refugees beyond 2020."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 24, 2017 Monday 5:37 PM GMT 


Charities saving refugees in the Mediterranean are 'colluding' with smugglers, Italian prosecutor claims;
Several NGOs working on the front lines of the refugee crisisrejectclaims as 'baseless' as Mediterranean death toll passes record 1,000 in2017 so far


BYLINE: Bethan McKernan


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:2


LENGTH: 645 words


An Italian prosecutor has said that he has evidence that charities helping refugees and migrants cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe safely are "colluding" with people smugglers.

Speaking to Italy's

La Stampa

, Sicily-based Carmelo Zuccaro told the paper: "We have evidence that there are direct contacts between certain NGOs and people traffickers in Libya."

Charities were making telephone calls to Libya, helping to guide smugglers' ships in Libyan as well as international waters and advising them to turn off transponders to avoid detection, he added. 

The British volunteers risking their lives to help refugees across the Mediterranean

Mr Zuccaro did not say whether he would open a criminal investigation.

Several NGOs working in the Mediterranean previously told

The Independent

such claims were "baseless".

Mr Zuccaro's task force began to investigate alleged links between charities and Libyan smugglers - ruthless criminals who prey on the desperate and whose business fuels Libya's civil war- in 2016.

As recently as last week he admitted he had no proof for allegations that NGOs were advising refugees not to cooperate with the Italian authorities, although the Italian parliament has also launched a fact-finding mission into the issue.

"We have seen the aftermath of what smugglers do, leaving families for dead in icy waters or giving them a dinghy knowingly with a broken engine,"Jude Bennett, co-founder of volunteer search and rescue team Refugee Rescue said, calling the claims "ridiculous".

"Refugee Rescue and other humanitarians are pawns in a larger political game. We are there to save lives at sea, simple."

The prosecutor's comments come amid escalating criticism from right-wing European politicians and agencies over the role of charities doing frontline rescue work in the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

More than 1,000 people have already died making the crossing between Libya to Italy so far this year, and 37,000 people have been rescued - an increase of more than 40 per cent on 2016, the UN's refugee agency says.

A controversial 2016 deal between Turkey and the EU that means refugees crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece are returned has succeeded in cutting the the number of people making that journey - but travel across the much larger stretch of the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy has increased in the same time period.

While charities' search and rescue efforts were initially welcomed by EUauthorities, a Frontex border agencyFebruary report claimed that charities operating near the Libyan coast "unintentionally help criminals achieve their objectives at minimum cost, strengthen their business model by increasing the chances of success".

Read more

Refugees 'beaten, abused and tear-gassed as they sleep', report shows

Refugee death toll passes 1,000 in record 2017

US to honour Australia refugee deal that Donald Trump called 'dumb'

Fishermen find bodies of 28 migrants in refugee 'ghost ship'

How Uganda can survive the influx of people fleeing South Sudan

Frontex has previously said that NGOs' work was tantamount to providing "a taxi service to Europe".

Stefano Argenziano, operations manager for migration at Médecins Sans Frontières, told

The Independent

that the medical charity rejected all allegations it was abetting smugglers.

"It's a ludicrous accusation that's diverting attention from the real problem," he said, adding that Europe has so far failed to provide other routes to safety for those fleeing instability and conflict on the African continent.

"The real problem is that people are dying. There's a gap in assistance and we're starting to wonder whether this is part of a deliberate plan to stop the migration flow...a deadly deterrent," he continued.

"Search and rescue is not the problem, but it is not the solution either. It is a necessity to save lives unless politicians can produce a safe and legal alternative."


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:05 PM GMT 


Is this why Trump declared refugee agreement a 'dumb deal'? President is attacked for travel ban but UN say Australia's tough immigration laws infringe on human rights 


BYLINE: DAVE BURKE FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 734 words



Tough immigration laws in Australia, which force migrants who arrive by boat into offshore detention centers, have been labelled 'cruel, inhuman and degrading' by the UN. 

The controversial laws are again under the spotlight again after US President Donald Trump lashed out over what he called a 'dumb' deal over refugees.

Trump reportedly clashed with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull over a deal made with the Obama administration, which will see 1,250 genuine refugees currently in centers in Nauru and Manus Island accepted into the US.

The US president is claimed to have hung up on Turnbull 25 minutes into the conversation after furiously telling him: 'I don't want these people.'

He wrote on Twitter yesterday: 'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!'

Trump's own record on accepting refugees has sparked protests all over the world after he barred people from seven predominantly Muslim countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - from entering the US for 90 days.

He also imposed a 120 day refugee ban, and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely.

Under the US-Australia agreement, which was reached in November, Australia would accept hundreds of refugees from South America who are currently in centers in Costa Rica.

WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIA-US REFUGEE DEAL?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

The same month as the deal was made, UN investigator Francois Crepeau visited the detention center on the island of Nauru, where he described conditions as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.

Mr Crepeau said Australia's policies 'have increasingly eroded the human rights of migrants in contravention of its international human rights and humanitarian obligations'.

And he continued: 'Australia would vehemently protest if its citizens were treated like this by other counties and especially if Australian children were treated like this.'

Amnesty International said in October that the immigration center was an 'open-air prison'.  

Offshore detention in Australia has been in place since 2001, and in 2013 Australia's mainland was excluded from its migration zone for people who arrive by boat.

Now migrants who arrive on Australian shores by sea are immediately sent to the island of Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

They stay in detention facilities while their applications to be accepted into Australia are processed. 

Although 90 per cent are ruled to have valid claims, they are not allowed to settle in the Australian mainland, instead being allowed to stay in Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

The policy has come under heavy fire, with conditions in the camp branded 'inhuman' by a UN inspector in November.

Supporters claim it deters migrants from arriving in dangerous vessels, and ensures refugees enter the country through proper channels.

In 2015 Australia agreed to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria. 

The previous year violence had erupted at a protest at the detention center on Manus Island, and a 23-year-old Iranian man was killed.

Turnbull has previously stated that Australians cannot be 'misty-eyed' about immigration, saying: 'We must have secure borders and we do and we will, and they will remain so, as long as I am the prime minister of this country.'  


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Oxford Mail


February 23, 2017 Thursday


'Oxford people should rally to support child refugees'


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 618 words


Oxford City Councillor Tom Hayes gives his view on the child refugee crisis.

OXFORD is furious and rightly so.

A programme to re-settle child refugees has just been binned and our city is outraged.

The Government has shut down this scheme after helping 10 per cent of the 3,000 children meant to reach safety.

Slamming the door shut strikes many as cold and wrong. 

Oxford needs to be clear: the Government - not the public - is slamming that door and they're doing it because their hearts - not ours - are hardening to children far from their families.

As my email inbox shows, Oxford and Britain are better than this decision.

We want the Government to change its mind and help the planet's most vulnerable people.

It's heart-warming to see Oxford's outpouring of support for vulnerable people on the move.

Our communities all over the city always respond with tolerance when tested.

It's so important for the city to keep making a compassionate case for helping refugees.

When there's silence, others will fill it with hateful slogans that try to strip people like you and me of their humanity.

That's why I'm pleased to stand with refugees alongside every councillor from every political party in the city.

For years campaigners have railed against immigration removal centre Campsfield House in Kidlington.

Hundreds protested on behalf of refugees during the last spike in the refugee crisis.

And Oxford's residents have donated whatever they can and literally opened their homes to Syrian families.

At the start of their new life in Oxford, the Almaree family has been warming many hearts in the city with their stories of making new friends, and the other Syrian families are doing the same.

If there's something to do to support refugees, Oxford has shown that it always steps up.

Which is why I'm hoping that we can do even more.

Something important is getting lost in this debate on the Government's closure of the Dubs lifeline.

And you can help to correct this now.

The Government has misjudged the mood, but perversely this debate is going their way.

It's right to urge the Government to honour its promise to bring 3,000 refugees to the UK.

However, this single focus isn't part of a larger call for stronger action.

What about the many thousands of other refugees embarking on terrifying journeys to find sanctuary?

Before the Home Secretary's announcement, the Prime Minister had been dragging her feet.

The Dubs scheme came into being because peers strong-armed ministers.

Himself a child refugee from the Nazis, Alf Dubs calls the Kindertransport the best of Britain.

The Kindertransport saved 10,000 lives from the Holocaust.

Today we're fighting for safety for 3,000 refugees, who must be the floor to our ambition to help, not the ceiling.

Here in Oxford we have a counter-momentum of people speaking up for refugees.

Speaking up is so crucial for ending the rising tide of hostility towards people on the move.

It's also key for urging our law-makers and leaders to respond with empathy to the displacement crisis when Government wants to pull back from helping people on the move. We can speak up now.

Please write to your MP and the Home Secretary and ask them to reinstate the Dubs scheme and increase the number of unaccompanied child refugees coming under that programme.

Hand writing takes more effort, but a letter in the post carries more weight than an email or a tweet.

Right now thousands are being forced to flee their homes by war and violence.

They're sleeping in appalling conditions.

Confined to camps and the streets of cities, many will be cold, hungry, and scared. They need help.

With our future as an outward-looking people in the balance, I hope you can stand up for the planet's most vulnerable people.


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BBC Monitoring South Asia - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


January 29, 2017 Sunday


Refugee influx another major challenge for Afghan government - paper


LENGTH: 725 words


Text of editorial entitled "Government and its inability to meet refugees' needs" by Afghan newspaper Daily Afghanistan, part of the Afghanistan newspaper group, on 28 January

One of the problems which has been taken into consideration for its humanitarian and economic prospects is the issue of repatriated refugees. Thousands of Afghan refugees who were deported from Pakistan, Iran and some European countries arrived in the country this year. Violence and insecurity has forced thousands of people to flee their homes and settle in the relatively secure areas within the country.

The increase in the number of forced deportations and the increase in the number of internally displaced people has created major obstacles for the provision of emergency assistance to both the returning refugees and the internally displaced people. Despite all its efforts, the government is not able to meet the demands of the refugees. The government is still heavily dependent on international aid for its development budget; therefore, Kabul is not in a position to provide even short-term assistance to the refugees. It is not only shelter and emergency food assistance required for the returnees; in the long-run, they need jobs, access to health care and education. 

Currently the government is unable to provide people with their basic life necessities and a large number of people live below the poverty line. Moreover, a large number suffer due to unemployment and the government has not been able to provide them with job opportunities. Therefore, we cannot expect anything from the government at this point of time. Unfortunately, problems related to the crisis of returnees have not been taken into consideration by the world either. Or the Afghan government has not made any serious efforts to attract international aid to address problems related to the returning refugees. The level of assistance provided by the world community to the refugees has not met the basic needs of both the returnees and internally displaced people in the winter as well as the summer seasons.

In addition, corruption has also slowed down the fair and timely distribution of aid packages to the returnees and displaced people. There are reports over the distribution of aid packages to returnees in a specific part of the country but the returnees in the mentioned areas say the distribution of any assistance to them in that particular area has not happened or what was distributed was less than what was reported. The existence of corruption in the aid agencies undermines the credibility of the aid agencies and the donor countries have become reluctant to extend the necessary support.

Based on official statistics, around one million Afghans returned from Iran and Pakistan last year and around 10,000 refugees returned from the European countries. The number of those who were displaced as a result of the ongoing conflicts in their areas has reached 600,000 individuals. While Afghanistan is coping with various poverty and security problems, the increase in the number of returning refugees is another burden for the government and the influx of such a large number of returnees has created major economic and security problems for the government. Taking into consideration the poor situation of refugees in the country, the International Monetary Fund has called on the international community to pay more attention to the crisis of displaced people and repatriated refugees in Afghanistan.

In a recent report, the IMF has stated that Afghanistan has been experiencing an increase in the number of returning refugees from Pakistan, Iran and European countries and the Afghan government has faced serious problems in providing assistance to these people. The IMF has called on the world community to provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of returnees in a bid to prevent a human catastrophe.

Earlier, the Afghan government and the United Nations jointly launched an aid plea of 550m dollars to address problems of the returnees. However, the government should make further efforts through diplomatic channels to raise funds for this purpose. Moreover, the government should provide the necessary assurance to the international community on proper and transparent utilisation of international aid to returnees.

Source: Daily Afghanistan in Dari and Pashto 28 Jan 17


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BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


June 18, 2017 Sunday


North Korea says US, West to blame for global refugee crisis


LENGTH: 753 words


Text of report headlined "US, Western countries are to blame for world's biggest refugee crisis: DPRK Human Rights Institute" in English by state-run North Korean news agency KCNA website on 17 June

[State-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station in Korean carried the following during its 0130 gmt newscast on 18 June]

Pyongyang, June 17 (KCNA) - The Human Rights Institute of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] Academy of Social Sciences issued a white paper Saturday [17 June] clarifying the root cause of the world's biggest refugee crisis getting serious day by day on the occasion of June 20, the World Refugees Day. 

Now that the number of refugees has far exceeded 65 million worldwide, it has become one of the most serious problems faced by the international community in the socio-political and humanitarian fields to tackle this and guarantee their rights, the white paper said, and went on: The root cause of the unprecedented refugee crisis today is attributable to the US and other Western countries' foreign policy for aggression and plunder.

All the foreign policies pursued by the US and the West are based on the imperialist viewpoint of looking down upon other nations and suppressing them while seeking one's own interests only in utter disregard of others, the "logic of strength" guided by jungle law aimed to dominate all countries and nations of the world by force and the dollar-almighty view on value.

It is due to the US and the West's reactionary external policy that sovereignty of countries are openly violated and extreme political chaos and disorder have been created to cause brutal violation of human rights in different parts of the world.

The refugee crisis which has thrown humankind into great fear and uneasiness in the new century is an inevitable product of the "war on terrorism" which the US has expanded worldwide by inveigling the Western countries after setting it as one important component of its foreign policy.

It is clear that the persistent "war on terrorism" characterised by aggression and plunder waged by the US for the world domination will further increase the number of refugees in the targeted countries and regions.

The occurrence of the unprecedented refugee crisis worldwide today is directly linked with the "colouring revolution" actively pushed forward by the US and the West.

The "colouring revolution" is one of important foreign policies of the US and the West aimed at bringing all countries and nations under their domination and assimilating them under the signboard of "freedom" and "democracy".

The reactionary ideological and cultural poisoning and provision of fund to anti-government forces by the US and other Western countries have caused such "colouring revolutions" as "rose revolution", "orange revolution" and "tulip revolution" in several countries of Eastern Europe and Asia as a result of which there have been regime changes in many countries and disputes and civil wars and lots of people have been reduced into refugees.

Clarifying it is none other than the US and other Western countries that created the biggest refugee crisis and cruelly violate their rights, the white paper continued: Even recently the US administration made public an executive order on immigration preventing refugees from entering the US by for 120 days.

This executive order is full of discrimination against Muslims from the Mid-east and Africa.

Not a few African refugees were repatriated in shackles as criminals against their will.

The Western countries which styled themselves "human rights gentlemen", completely discarding that spurious mask, set up double, treble barbed-wire entanglements in the border areas to block the border.

They even set standards for entry, sending back those refugees who do not meet those standards.

In some countries the refugees are holed up in freight containers when proceedings for entry are underway and a "law" by which those who do not opt for other country are not set free just like criminals is in force.

Due to the US and other Western countries' sealing of borders and deliberate persecution, large contingents of stranded refugees spend days and months outside in border areas of those countries without the provision of elementary living conditions.

The US and other Western countries which caused such an inhuman incident and pushed the refugee issue into a grave phase should not evade their responsibilities but face due punishment at international human rights court.

Source: KCNA website in English 17 Jun 17


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The Independent - Daily Edition


February 10, 2017 Friday  
First Edition


Disabled child refugees denied entry to Britain


BYLINE: HARRIET AGERHOLM


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3


LENGTH: 729 words


The Government has stopped accepting disabled child refugees fleeing war in Syria and other countries because it says it cannot cope with their needs, The Independent can reveal. A flagship government programme to resettle the most vulnerable victims of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa has been partially suspended, meaning children will be left in refugee camps instead of being moved to safety in the UK.

The revelation, condemned as "unthinkable" and "marking a new low" in the Government's handling of the refugee crisis, comes as ministers came under fire for closing down a separate scheme, the Dubs programme, offering sanctuary to lone refugee children in Europe. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, was forced to defend the Dubs closure yesterday, but faced criticism for saying that the scheme would "incentivise" children to travel to Europe. The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was "saddened and shocked" by its closure and appeared to compare the Government's position with that of Donald Trump. 

The crisis affecting the Government's refugee programmes deepened as it emerged that its Vulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme, which is supposed to rehome 3,000 children with their families from countries including Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq, is not accepting young people with complex needs, including disabilities and learning difficulties.

The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which processes applications, said the Home Office had requested it "temporarily limit" requests from people with mobility problems and learning disabilities because there was not "suitable reception capacity" for them. The Independent understands the Home Office has been refusing to consider applications from people with disabilities since at least the beginning of January. It is understood that no end date to the suspension has yet been set.

The latest developments come after the Home Affairs Select Committee found last month that accommodation provided for asylum seekers in the UK was a "disgrace", with investigators describing people living in rat and insect-infested housing. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said the revelation about disabled children "represents a new low for the Government" and she will be making further inquiries.

Shantha Barriga, director of Human Rights Watch's disability rights division, said: "Shutting the door on vulnerable children is an affront to British values. People with disabilities endure unimaginable hardship during conflict, and many faced huge hurdles in escaping the violence. That the UK now says it's not prepared to accept refugees with disabilities is unthinkable." She added: "It's an indefensible decision and blatant discrimination. The UK is not simply lacking 'suitable accommodation' in this case, but seems to be lacking political will." Dr Lisa Doyle, head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said: "The refugees who benefit from the UK's resettlement programmes are by definition the most vulnerable, and refugees with disabilities will often have specific needs. While the Refugee Council knows that communities up and down the country are keen to help welcome refugees it appears there is an urgent need for accessible accommodation."

Andrej Mahecic, the UNHCR's senior external relations manager, said: "The Home Office has requested UNHCR to temporarily limit submissions of cases with special mobility and educational needs. We understand that this temporary measure is to assist the Government and local authorities with ensuring that suitable reception capacity is available for these highly vulnerable cases."

A Home Office spokesperson said it was wrong that all refugees with mobility or educational needs were being denied sanctuary. More than 1,000 adults under another refugee scheme - the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement programme - have been brought to the UK. But the spokeperson added that after discussion with the UNHCR, the Home Office had temporarily paused new referrals of some of the "most complex cases" to its Vulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme. This would allow the Government to ensure those cases were properly accommodated when they arrived, they said. "We work closely with the UNHCR and local authorities on both schemes and always ensure the necessary care packages are in place as we plan the arrival of vulnerable children and their families."


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


February 23, 2017 Thursday


New camp opened in Uganda for South Sudan refugees


LENGTH: 560 words


Text of report in English by Ugandan privately-owned Chimp Reports news website on 23 February

UNHCR and partners have opened a new settlement area in Arua District, northern Uganda, that is set to become host to thousands of arriving refugees from South Sudan. 

The new Imvepi settlement was opened after Palorinya settlement in Moyo District, which was opened in December 2016, rapidly reached its 135,000 refugee-hosting capacity.

With thousands of new arrivals fleeing to Uganda every day, South Sudan is now Africa's largest refugee crisis and the world's, third after Syria and Afghanistan - with less attention and chronic levels of underfunding.

The new Imvepi settlement area has been identified as it is expected to be able to accommodate up to 110,000 new arrivals who flee to Uganda in the weeks and months ahead.

Imvepi was considered a suitable location for the new settlement as some of the previous infrastructure remains intact from when the area was previously utilized to host South Sudanese refugees.

More than 2,000 South Sudanese refugees have already made Imvepi their new home in the last two days, where, in line with Uganda's progressive approach to asylum, they will live side by side with members of the Ugandan host community.

UNHCR highly commends the generosity of the host community in Imvepi, who have come together to donate the land on which the settlement will be hosted. This gesture is an exceptional display of solidarity with people who have been forced to leave everything behind due to war and conflict.

Upon arrival, refugees from South Sudan receive a plot of land on which to build their new homes and grow crops. Refugees additionally are free to access public services such as health care and education.

In recognition of the additional strain being placed on local services, and of the generosity of host communities, around 30 per cent (as a guiding principle) of the resources of the humanitarian response goes towards benefiting host communities.

This is typically realised through improvements to local infrastructure that that not only bolsters the capacity to assist the refugees, but is also carried out in a way that continues to benefit Ugandans even after its safe for the refugees to return home.

More than 1.5 million South Sudanese refugees have fled to neighbouring countries in the region, around half of which are located in Uganda. More than two-thirds of South Sudanese refugees living in Uganda have arrived since the outbreak of violence in Juba in July 2016. Currently, the influx shows little sign of abating, with more than 116,000 South Sudanese refugees having fled to Uganda in 2017 alone.

Recent new arrivals report suffering inside South Sudan with intense fighting, kidnappings, rape, fears of armed groups and threats to life, as well as acute food shortage.

The humanitarian response continues to face significant challenges in light of chronic and severe underfunding. The humanitarian response for South Sudanese refugees in Uganda in 2016 received just 40 per cent of the US$251million requested, compromising the abilities of the response to provide vital aid.

For 2017, the humanitarian response has requested US$558 million. In addition, UNHCR is appealing to all parties in the conflict to urgently act to bring a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Source: Chimp Reports in English 23 Feb 17


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The Guardian(London)


June 1, 2017 Thursday 2:29 AM GMT 


Peter Dutton defends Asio director over refugee and terrorism comments;
Minister expresses confidence in Duncan Lewis after Tony Abbott said he should reassess views on cause of terrorism


BYLINE: Paul Karp


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 754 words


Peter Dutton has defended the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director, Duncan Lewis, over his evidence to the Senate rejecting One Nation's claims of a link between refugees and terrorism.

At a doorstop on Thursday, Dutton said if anyone wanted to level criticism at the refugee program they should criticise him and argued terrorism was caused by radicalisation regardless of people's method of arrival in Australia.

The comments from the senior conservative figure stand in contrast with Tony Abbott's warning on Wednesday that public officials should not "deny facts" that three recent terrorist attacks in Australia "involved either people claiming to be refugees or the children of refugees". 

Related: Tony Abbott says Asio chief needs to 'think again' on causes of terrorism

On Thursday, Abbott stepped up his calls to crack down on Islamic extremism with a call to create "special courts" to try returning jihadis.

Last week at Senate estimates Lewis told Pauline Hanson he had no evidence of any connection between refugees and terrorism. On Wednesday, Lewis explained that only a few refugees of the tens of thousands that have come to Australia have caused concern to Asio.

He said that, in the few cases where terrorists were refugees or their children, it was "not because they are refugees but because of the violent, extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam that they have adopted".

On Thursday, Dutton expressed confidence in Lewis and urged people to respect his "loyal" service and to look at the facts and the full context of his comments, not "one sentence".

"The point Mr Lewis was making that others have made, and I've made on a number of occasions, is that we do have problems where people are indoctrinated online, where they have an impressionable young mind," he said.

"Our problem is with people of any background, whether they are born here or when they come here, who are radicalised and go out and commit these offences."

Dutton cited his own earlier comments that some children of "Lebanese Muslim" refugees that came to Australia in the 1970s have been charged with terrorism offences and noted "they were born here".

Referring to the recent Manchester attack in the UK, the immigration minister said people are "radicalised, not because of the pathway that they came to our country but because they have had their minds influenced by people over the internet or by rogue preachers or whatever it might be".

Dutton said: "If people want to criticise this government in relation to the refugee program, criticise me. I'm the person in charge of this portfolio."

Since the second world war, 845,000 refugees have come to Australia and have worked hard, he said. Of the 12,000 additional refugees taken from Syria, there were national security concerns that barred more than 20, he added.

On Thursday, Abbott wrote an opinion piece in News Corp papers accusing Australia of treating terrorist suspects, "economic migrants", "welfare rorters" and criminals with "kid gloves".

"Since 9/11, it should have been ­obvious that there's a strain of Islam that believes quite literally in death to the infidel."

Related: Asio head tells Pauline Hanson there is 'no evidence' of link between refugees and terrorism

Abbott said Australians should not "pussyfoot around" the fact the "root cause" of that lies in the interpretation of the Koran and claimed that Islam lacked an "interpretative tradition" to moderate its teachings, unlike Christianity.

The former prime minister reiterated his call for expanded shoot-to-kill powers during terrorist events.

Abbott said that Australia should ensure jihadis returning from foreign conflicts "can readily be charged and convicted, possibly through the creation of special courts that can hear evidence that may not normally be admissible".

On Thursday Dutton told 2GB radio he had read Abbott's piece and revealed he dined with him in Canberra on Wednesday evening.

"[Abbott's] still a good friend," he said. "I had a good relationship with him when I served as a minister and I was loyal to him then; I don't have any different relationship to him now. I'm still mates with him.

"I can serve Malcolm Turnbull loyally and I don't have any criticism of Tony [Abbott], no."

Dutton said that the Turnbull government was committed to killing Islamic State fighters in the Middle East with the Australian airforce.

"We do not want these people on the face of the Earth because their purpose is to destroy decent law-abiding men, women and children."


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FinancialWire


June 21, 2017 Wednesday


ECHO contributes 2 million Euros to UNICEF's emergency response to the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda


LENGTH: 518 words


KAMPALA, Uganda -- The Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) has contributed 2 million Euros - 8 billion Uganda shillings - to UNICEF's emergency nutrition and education response to the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda. 



"With over 2,000 South Sudanese refugees arriving in Uganda every day since July 2016, Uganda is now host to the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world," said Isabelle D'Haudt, ECHO's Humanitarian Advisor for Uganda.

"The European Union is therefore proud to support UNICEF respond to the major nutrition and education needs of children within both refugee and host communities in Uganda."

Over 750,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Uganda since July 2016, with over 950,000 South Sudanese refugees now in the country since the beginning of the South Sudan crisis in December 2013.

"Considering 60% of all South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are under the age of 18 and 56% of the population in all South Sudanese refugee-hosting districts in the country are children, children are the face of the South Sudanese refugee crisis in Uganda," said Aida Girma, UNICEF's Representative in Uganda.

"UNICEF is very grateful to the people of the European Union for this contribution, which will help us urgently scale-up our response to many children in acute need."

A recent food security and nutrition assessment conducted in the refugee hosting districts shows high malnutrition rates, stunted development due to chronic malnutrition and high levels of anemia among children and women. Similarly, in the education sector, in both early childhood development (ECD) centers and primary schools, there are vast needs ranging from inadequate classrooms, teaching materials and latrines, among other needs.

The ECHO contribution will enable UNICEF to provide: nutritional screening for all children at refugee entry points; appropriate treatment and care for severely malnourished children; Vitamin A micronutrients and deworming medicine for children; and iron/folate supplementation to pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The nutrition intervention is estimated to reach nearly 200,000 beneficiaries.

For education, UNICEF will construct 7 new ECD centres as well as upgrade 15 ECD centres from a temporary to semi-permanent state, which will provide multi-sectoral quality early childhood development to around 5,000 young children.

As at May 2017, UNICEF's response to South Sudanese refugees and host communities in Uganda has supported:

Over 135,000 children with vaccinations against measles and over 70,000 children with vaccinations against polio; nearly 185,000 people with clean water; 9,000 severely

malnourished children with therapeutic feeding treatment; over 12,000 children who have been separated from their parents and/or families with family tracing and reunification services; over 85,000, children and adolescents to access education; and nearly 50,000 young children to access critical Early Childhood Development services.

Distributed by APO on behalf of UNICEF Uganda.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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Daily Star


February 13, 2017 Monday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


KIDS OF 8 FACING RAPE & DEATH;
Traffickers preying on the refugees banned by Britain EXCLUSIVE


BYLINE: JERRY LAWTON


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14,15


LENGTH: 529 words


CHILD refugees as young as eight face rape and death after Britain shut them out.

Our investigators watched people traffickers descend on a camp in Dunkirk, France.

Youngsters played with skipping ropes among the wooden shacks at the La Liniere site. 

At the same time traffickers arrived on a country lane 500 yards away to offer desperate migrants a perilous route into the UK.

A stream of cars arrived in a dead end behind a petrol station which the refugees use as a shortcut to shops.

Some men sat there for hours studying their mobile phones after approaching migrants coming to and from the camp.

Inside the site, women and children - including around 100 unaccompanied minors - are forced to have sex by traffickers in return for blankets, food or a passage to Britain, according to volunteers.

Last month the camp's women's centre was burned down in a suspected arson attack.

Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson said she would "never be the same" after her recent visit left her "so angry" because the "politics are incomprehensibly devastating".

The UK shut the door on child refugees after taking in 350 - just 10% of the number MPs and aid organisations thought would be allowed to come to Britain.

Smugglers Not one child from Dunkirk has yet been offered a home in the UK.

Forty refugees have died in the last 18 months trying to make the trip to Britain, according to refugee aid organisation Doctors Without Borders.

The youngest unaccompanied child they have helped was just eight.

The group's legal adviser Lucie Lecarpentier said: "The situation is very grave.

"If people are not being provided with proper shelter and have no prospect of safe legal passage they resort to smugglers and traffickers. Then their lives are in danger."

La Liniere, wedged between a railway line and motorway in the Dunkirk suburb of Grande-Synthe, opened a year ago to house up to 2,000 refugees.

Some of these people, who include lawyers, doctors and farmers from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, have perished trying to sneak into Britain under lorries and in the back of containers or trying to leap onto ferries.

Traffickers who arrived outside the camp last week were offering passage to the UK for £2,000.

One refugee welfare worker said: "These criminals are just exploiting the misery and desperation of others.

Paedophiles

"They don't care if the refugee survives or not as long as they have their money.

"They are paedophiles who will abuse children and rape any women they have control over, because they hold the refugees' only hope in their hands." The worker added: "The British government must share the blame.

"By cutting off the refugees' legitimate passage to the UK they have brought more traffickers to the camp."

On Saturday a 50,000-signature petition was handed to Prime Minister Theresa May objecting to the child refugee ban. French refugee charity Utopia56 is crowd-funding legal action against the UK government in a bid to overturn the move.

One volunteer co-ordinator at the Dunkirk camp told lawyers: "A 12-year-old girl was groomed in the camp by a man over twice her age.

"And a 13-year-old boy ended up returning to his home country having been raped."

jerry.lawton@dailystar.co.uk


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Express Online


February 4, 2017 Saturday 5:11 PM GMT 


Migration takes toll on German economy as Merkel faces skyrocketing £26billion bill


BYLINE: Oli Smith


LENGTH: 529 words


THE German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a growing refugee resettlement bill as the backlash to her 'open-door' policy continues to bite.

Angela Merkel faces a whopping £26billion spending bill to cover the costs of refugee care - with around £3billion needed this year alone. 

This comes despite Mrs Merkel's insistence that letting in more than a million refugees would serve long-term potential economic benefits to Germany.

However, the German government now faces investing £3billion of taxpayers money now - and as much as £26bn over the next 15 years - to cover the bare minimum of refugee care.

This is expected to cover the largely unemployed refugee population's costs of housing, food and training.

GETTY

A refugee employment fair in Berlin - as Merkel faces a giant investment bill

Despite earlier promises, more than 90 per cent of migrants who arrived in Germany remain unemployed for their first year in the country.

This is because 70 per cent of those who flooded into the country had no educational background, with little to no work skills. 

Germany now faces the expensive challenge of trying to integrate half a million migrants into the national workforce as soon as possible.

Stefan Bach, German Institute for Economic Research, told DW: "Too little was done for the refugees in the past to prepare them for now."

He urged Mrs Merkel to spend £3billion now, which he predicted would cut the overall 15-year projected spending from £26billion to £17billion.

Mr Bach said if the German government invested more in education and training now, then these skilled workers would be able to take care of themselves in the future, without government assistance.

DW

Angela Merkel faces a whopping £26bn spending bill to cover the costs of refugee care

DW

Stefan Bach, German Institute for Economic Research, urged billions of investment

He said: "We first have to spend the money, we have to invest, because ultimately it will benefit society.

"Once refugees are integrated into the labour market, the taxes and social contributions they pay will rise.

"Better training now means higher earning later, so refugees will pay more in taxes later.

"We say £3billon need to be invested now, that will save on social services, so costs will sink from £26billon to £17billon."

DW

One Afghani refugee said he came to Germany with no education background

DW

Kai Hunemorder, Hamburg Chamber of Crafts, said Germany was training the future of Syria

However, critics claim that  around half of the refugees who have arrived are expected to leave the country to return to their homeland.

They claim that this amounts to the German taxpayer footing a giant investment programme, just for migrants to use their skills elsewhere.

Despite this, Kai Hunemorder, Hamburg Chamber of Crafts, was delighted, adding: "The refugees we train in Germany could be critical to the rebuilding of Syria."

He said that the very actions Germans take now could decide the stability of the Middle East in the future.

Related articles Merkel 'CANCELS' talks on securing rights for UK expats living in EU EU diehards BLAST Trump amid fears of future with US Trump 'beheads' Statue of Liberty in controversial magazine cover


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The Independent - Daily Edition


June 21, 2017 Wednesday  
First Edition


Legal challenge launched over Home Office 'failure' to implement Dubs scheme


BYLINE: MAY BULMAN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 19


LENGTH: 918 words


Campaigners have launched a High Court challenge against the Government over the number of unaccompanied child refugees accepted into the UK under the Dubs scheme.

The Help Refugees charity, which is leading the case, accuses the Home Office of adopting a "seriously defective" process to measure the capacity of local councils to take in child refugees, after it emerged many local authorities were not properly consulted.

The Government announced in early February that it was to close the Dubs scheme - intended to grant 3,000 vulnerable unaccompanied minors a safe passage to Britain - after accepting just 350. It later admitted that an "administrative error" led to 130 places for child refugees offered by local councils not being taken into consideration. 

It has since emerged that the Home Office reportedly ignored almost 1,600 offers from councils to take in asylum-seeking children. Freedom of Information requests submitted by Vice magazine showed that in total, councils had voluntarily offered to accept 1,572 more children than they were currently supporting.

Help Refugees is now asking the court to order the Secretary of State to consult local authorities again, urging that the Government reopen the Dubs Scheme.

Lord Alf Dubs and actress and activist Juliet Stevenson were among politicians and other supporters at a "Choose Love" demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London as the challenge got under way on yesterday morning.

During the hearing, legal experts acting on behalf of Help Refugees will accuse the Home Office of carrying out a "consultation by stealth", by failing to provide the local authorities with critical information such as the fact that there was a 14 October 2016 cut-off date for responses. It will state that the Home Office initiated but abandoned a consultation in Northern Ireland and failed to count 91 per cent of the places offered by Scottish local authorities because they were sent after the "cut-off" date.

At least 86 per cent of the places offered by Welsh local authorities, sent soon after the consultation period ended, were reportedly also not counted towards the specified number. And at least 45 per cent of places offered in England were discounted for the same reason. Since the scheme was ended, multiple councils have come forward to offer spaces for child refugees left destitute or living in camps across Europe.

Help Refugees is confident that if the consultation process is carried out properly, the number of children who can come to the UK will increase.

The court case will also challenge the Government's alleged failure to implement its expressly urgent statutory duty quickly enough, after it waited until 8 February 2017 to announce the "specified number" of children it intended to relocate, including a period of two months spent exclusively on developing a "communications strategy".

Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, also known as the Dubs amendment, requires the Government to make arrangements "as soon as possible" after the passing of the Immigration Act 2016 to relocate and support unaccompanied refugee children from Europe.

Further, the case will state that there was a lack of fundamental procedural safeguards for unaccompanied refugee children who receive adverse decisions about their eligibility for relocation, after many unaccompanied minors in France were told they had not been accepted with no written reasons or explanation, and no formal mechanism to challenge refusals.

There are currently 95,000 unaccompanied refugee children living in Europe, many of whom have suffered appalling abuse.

Speaking ahead of the court case, Lord Alf Dubs, a former child refugee and the original sponsor of the Dubs Amendment, accused the Government of putting refugee children's lives at risk.

"I believe the Government's inadequate consultation to calculate local authority capacity, the woefully low number that the Government has set and the appallingly slow pace of relocations are all indicative of a level of incompetence in the current government that's verging on deep cynicism," Lord Dubs said. "The Government's foot-dragging is putting refugee children's lives at risk. That is why this legal challenge is so very important. What these children need is a helping hand, similar to the one Britain lent me when I was a boy. I wasn't left alone to live in camps or on the streets of Europe. I was saved by Britain and its people."

Juliet Stevenson, human rights activist and award-winning actress, urged that the refugees in question were "children and not statistics", saying: "The focus in this incredibly important case might be on numbers, but these children are not statistics. They are desperately needy children. What happens with the Dubs Amendment is a test of our shared humanity.

"Are we going to turn our back on the children who are alone and most vulnerable, or do we choose to act with compassion and love, and offer a safe home and future to children we have the capacity to help?"

Help Refugees CEO Josie Naughton said: "We're taking this action because lone refugee children in Europe are sleeping in woods, on streets and in acutely under-equipped refugee camps in danger of the worst kinds of abuses.

"In May 2016, a law was put in place to help protect these children, but for over a year Amber Rudd and the Home Office have put children's safety at risk by failing to uphold it. There are hundreds more local authority spaces available for these children and the Home Office knows it."


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The Evening Standard (London)


March 30, 2017 Thursday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


What can we do about this global crisis?


SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 42,43


LENGTH: 673 words


REFUGE: TRANSFORMING A BROKEN REFUGEE SYSTEM by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier (Allen Lane, £20) ROBERT FOX ONE night last weekend the Italian coastguards picked up 1,000 refugees from their sinking craft off the coasts of Libya - only one person died in the complex operation.

It takes such a shock statistic of flight, violence and terror to bring the refugees back into the headlines. But the refugees should never have left the news, argue Sir Paul Collier and Alexander Betts in this timely and acutely aimed polemic. 

The refugee crisis should be high up the agenda for Europe and the advanced nations of the world, because the present system of governance and regulation doesn't work, and the breakdown threatens economic order as well as fundamental values and norms of human decency and justice.

There are about 20 million refugees in need of immediate succour and protection, while in the world there are at least 60 million stateless and fugitives. Most come from Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan.

At least 11 million Syrians - nearly half the total population - are now refugees, six million displaced inside the country. More than half of Syria's active and skilled graduates now live in Europe. There is little chance that even half will return home within a generation.

This book is very strong on diagnosis - as might be expected of Sir Paul, trusted consigliere to both Tony Blair and David Cameron. His study with Betts, who heads Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre, follows his excellent Exile, a broader consideration of migration. They come up with a number of ingenious remedies to at least soften the current crisis.

First, they argue for an overhaul of principle as well as practice in national and international approaches. Too much is rooted in the European experience after the Second World War, which saw tens of millions of refugees on the march. Accordingly, principles of asylum were based on persecution - this should be changed to flight from violence and the use of force.

The fledgling UN set up the UN High Commission for Refugees in 1948, backed by UN convention in 1951. The ideals of the convention are still fine, but the way the organisation has bounced from crisis to crisis over the past 70 years makes it unfit for purpose.

Today it is generally underfunded, both in general and for specific missions and tasks, which now include mass impact disaster relief. Equally, the Europeans have mismanaged the handling of the millions of refugees arriving since the Arab Spring of 2011.

Instruments such as the Schengen Agreement, which reduced internal borders, and the Dublin Regulation on asylum in the first country of arrival may have had a noble intent, but in execution they have been a shambles. Today they are all but abandoned - a threat to EU solidarity and unity as much as Brexit.

The authors recommend that the UN abandon the idea that recognised refugees should not be able to work if they are to have UN protection. They recall a visit to the Zaatari camp, home to more than 100,000 workless and depressed Syrians just inside Jordan - with a huge industrial development zone, completely empty just a few miles away.

Refugees must be allowed to work - and special development sites should employ them. And failing states are not doomed to continue to fail. They should be "incubated" for social recovery, as has happened with Ethiopia and Rwanda.

If anything, for my money, the authors place too much faith in the power of states - but this is a minor quibble. Iraq and Syria will never be unitary, and unified, states in my lifetime - or perhaps that of any of us. And there are terrible outliers threatening even more refugees in the Mediterranean.Gaza, where two million live in squalor and abandon, will run out of sweet water by 2020, according to the UN Development Programme - which suggests they will all have to move. But where and how? The authors say it is over to all of us to decide such matters. Not so fast - their next contribution to their brilliant polemic is more than eagerly awaited.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 14, 2017 Tuesday 12:55 PM GMT 


Lord Dubs says he 'honestly' doesn't understand why Theresa May has scrapped the child refugee scheme;
The former child refugee dismissed the Government's arguments


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:2


LENGTH: 580 words


The former 1930s child refugee who convinced David Cameron to accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees has said he does not understand why Theresa May has scrapped the scheme.

Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as part of the Kindertransport scheme, dismissed the Government's stated reasons for scrapping the scheme and said he had "honestly" no idea why the scheme had really been closed.

"I try and understand, when I disagree with the Government, and politically of course I'm bound to be in this position on a whole range of issues, why they're doing what they're doing," he told the House of Commons International Development Select Committee. 

Read more

Tory MP's 'callous' reply to voter who found lorry of child refugees

"In this case I honestly don't under why they've done it. We're talking about very small numbers, we know that if we take children then fewer of them get trafficked - at the time when the Jungle was going the more they felt they could come legally the less they came on the back of a truck.

"I honestly do not understand in my heart of hearts why the Government has chosen to close it down on this way. They could have easily kept it going for a bit longer and taken a few more."

The scheme was originally expected to take 3,000 unaccompanied child refuges from the continent but the Government announced at the start of the year that it would be closing after just 350.

Ministers have claimed that local councils do not have enough space to take child refugees, and that the so-called "Dubs Scheme" encourages people trafficking and acts a pull factor for refugees from conflicts in the Middle East to make the journey to Europe.

Read more

Government policy on child refugees ignores evidence, charities warn

Tory MP says people should 'stop being so sentimental' about refugees

UK closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m profit for smugglers'

Downing Street in spat with Francois Hollande over young migrants

Home Office set to review child refugee asylum claims in France

Lord Dubs however dismissed these arguments: "They said they wanted to stop the scheme because the scheme encouraged trafficking. To which I would say, emphatically not - when there are legal paths to safety the traffickers don't get a way in. We know that traffickers do best when there's no legal way in."

He added that he had spoken to local councils about taking more refugees and that many had volunteered spaces.

"I think there's a great misunderstanding on the part of the Home Office if they actually believe that," he said.

"I've spoken to local authority leaders who say they're open to taking more, they're happy to take more, and indeed up and down the country.

"I'm not saying all local authorities can and they do have financial difficulties. But on both counts I think the Government are wrong."

He added that it was unlikely that the scheme was causing people to make the journey to Europe as the legislation included a specific cut-off date and that new refugees would not be eligible for it.

Closing the scheme last month, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she was "proud" of the Government's policy on child refugees.

"The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," Ms Rudd said at the time.

"The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach."


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dailyrecord.co.uk


June 21, 2017 Wednesday 12:36 PM GMT 


'We are happy in Scotland. We love people and want to make friends' Syrian mum celebrates World Refugee day in Glasgow;
More than 150 people gathered in Glasgow to form a giant human chain in a symbolic gesture of union with refugees fleeing to Scotland.


BYLINE: By Stephen Stewart


SECTION: NEWS,SCOTTISH NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 606 words


Young and old joined arms yesterday to form a giant human chain to stand in solidarity with the world's refugees .

More than 150 people gathered in Glasgow to take part in the symbolic gesture of unity.

Some of Scotland's newest citizens were among the crowds enjoying the sunshine during the event in the city's George Square. Two familes - who are originally from Syria - arrived in Scotland in the last few months.

Mum of two Khadija moved to south Ayrshire three months ago. She said: "I loved the music and drums today and getting a chance to do some traditional Syrian dancing. We are used to life in a busy city in Syria so we love coming to Glasgow and feeling the atmosphere here. 

Hundreds gather in Glasgow to form human chain showing solidarity with refugees

"South Ayrshire is a bit quiet but it is lovely and peaceful and calm."

Mum of three Alia has been in Scotland for a month. Alia said: "We are happy in Scotland. We love people and want to make friends but the new language is still difficult for us. "The children are faster learners of English than us. The kids are coping really well with life in a new country and have settled in faster than we thought they would."

Abdul Bostani, 34, was forced to flee the Taliban in Afghanistan. He has started a new life as a successful accountant in Glasgow. He studied at Strathclyde University before launching his career.

He said: "This was a great day and so good to see so many people come out. It's a credit to Scotland that so many people realise the great benefits that refugees bring to their new country.

"I love Scotland and the people and I have been welcomed with open arms. I feel that I am really contributing to society and feel very positive about being here."

The human chain symbol of solidarity marks World Refugee Day and the start of the Refugee Festival Scotland and saw more than 150 people join together in George Square. Politicans, musicians and schoolkids stood in line to show their solidarity with people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes.

Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International's Scotland programme director, said: "Today, we remember the thousands of people who lost their lives as they tried to save their families from war, persecution, or death.

"People from all over Scotland have shown that they welcome refugees and today, on World Refugee Day, we stood with them to renew that pledge. We want to ensure that refugees who do manage to arrive safely in the UK are welcomed and given the support they need to recover from their traumatic experiences."

Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland , said: "World Refugee Day provides an important opportunity to reflect on the plight of refugees at a time when more people than ever before have been forced to flee their homes.

Shocking footage shows 'asylum seeker' crying for help as 'immigration officer' slaps him and forces his head against plane seat

"Today we've demonstrated that the people of Scotland stand as one with refugees and that we will continue to warmly welcome those who've escaped conflict and persecution into our communities and country."

Gary Christie, of Scottish Refugee Council said: "We're gathered here today to show that we care about people who have been forced to flee their homes around the world. "Millions of people's lives continue to be torn apart by war and terrorism and we are proud that Scotland offers a place of safety to a small number of people in need. We're also here to pay tribute to the courage and strength of those men, women and children who are rebuilding their lives in Scotland with the support of communities across the country."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:18 PM GMT 


Theresa May refuses to condemn Donald Trump immigration ban;
'The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees,'Prime Minister says


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 620 words


Theresa May has refused to condemn Donald Trump's ban on refugees and entry for citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations after meeting with the Turkish President.

She was speaking just a day after meeting the new President in Washington , where the pair pledged their commitment to the "special relationship" between Britain and the US.

After agreeing a controversial £100 million fighter jet deal amid wide-ranging purges and security crackdowns following an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ms May held a joint press conference with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. 

When May met Trump - five key points from the leaders' press conference

Their talks were overshadowed by global debate over Mr Trump's executive order to ban Syrian refugees from entering the US indefinitely, halt all other asylum admissions for 120 days and suspended travel visas for citizens of "countries of particular concern", including Syria, Iraq and other Muslim-majority nations.

Read more

Iraqi refugee targeted for helping US military detained at JFK airport

May agrees fighter jet deal with Erdogan despite human rights abuse

Most Isis victims Muslims despite Trump's plan for Christian refugees

Faisal Islam, the political editor of

Sky News

, asked Ms May whether she viewed it as an "action of the leader of the free world".

The Prime Minister replied that she was "very pleased" to have met Mr Trump in Washington, before evading the question by hailing Turkey's reception of millions of refugees and Britain's support for its government and other nations surrounding Syria.

When pressed for a second time for her view by another British journalist, Ms May continued: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees, the United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees."

Mr Yildirim was more direct, calling the crisis a global issue and saying thatUN members "cannot turn a blind eye to this issue and settle it by constructing walls".

"Nobody leaves their homes for nothing, they came here to save their lives and our doors were open...and we would do it again," he added. "If there is someone in need, you need to give them a helping hand to make sure they survive."

The Turkish Prime Minister brushed aside a question about wide-ranging human rights abuses in Turkey following the summer's attempted coup, seeing thousands of people arrested or forced to leave government and military posts amid reports of torture in state prisons.

Mr Trump has suspended all refugee admissions to the US for 120 days as part of measures he claimed would "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

His order additionally banned Syrian refugees indefinitely until "significant changes" are made, and halved the annual cap on refugees to 50,000.

Read more

Most Isis victims Muslims despite Trump's plan for Christian refugees

The President's executive order also suspends travel visas for anyone from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Syria, Iraq, Libya and Iran, from entering the US for at least 90 days.

He claimed his administration needed time to develop more stringent screening processes for refugees, immigrants and visitors.

It provoked outcry from the United Nations andNGOs working to stem the worst ever global refugee crisis, with more than 65 million people forced to flee their homes.

Amnesty International warned the move could have "catastrophic consequences", saying some of the worst fears about a Trump presidency were already being realised.

Salil Shetty, the group's secretary general, said: "These men, women and children are the victims of the same terror President Trump claims he wants to fight against. The irony beggars belief."


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Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


June 23, 2017 Friday


UN chief urges South Sudan leaders to end violence


LENGTH: 746 words


Text of report in English headlined "UN secretary-general calls out South Sudan leadership on visit to refugee camp" published by Ugandan privately-owned Chimp Reports news website on 22 June

The United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, has made a strong call for the persistent war in South Sudan to end, challenging the leadership to find a solution to the conflict.

Guterres made the call on his second day in Uganda, while he was visiting Imvepi refugee settlement in Arua, northern Uganda on Thursday [22 June]. 

Accompanied by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and UN resident coordinator in Uganda, Ms Rosa Malango, the UN chief landed at Inyau Primary School at around 2:42 pm as a delegation of development partners and locals waited.

While responding to questions from the press, Guterres said; "Twelve years ago, I was here in June in this same place with South Sudanese refugees who were singing with joy hoping they would go back home.

"Years after, I was able to accompany many of them to cross the border to reunite with their families hoping their new country would be at peace," he went on to say.

He lashed out at both President Salva Kiir and Riek Marchar [former vice-president] as well as the people he said "have not deserved the people they have" as a result of the suffering inflicted by endless war.

Gueterres stressed that it was time that the parties in the conflict got the message clearly.

Of the 1.2 million refugees currently hosted in Uganda, over 800,000 came from South Sudan due to the ongoing ethnic war. It is estimated that 700,000 South Sudanese refugees crossed into Uganda since July 2016 with about 2,000 daily arrivals registered. Social workers from World Vision say the majority of the refugees are single parents (women) and children.

"Peace in South Sudan is a must. It's time for the war to end. It's time for the leaders in South Sudan to understand that they need to stop this war," he said.

He hailed the efforts made by regional actors IGAD, heads of state, African Union and UN for the restoration of peace.

The secretary-general, who will Friday [23 June] attend the Solidarity Summit on Refugees in Munyoyo, used his visit to Imvepi refugee camp to appeal for a boost in the diplomatic capacity to end conflicts such as that in the volatile South Sudan that has left four million people displaced.

Upon arrival, Guterres had walked to on looking primary school pupils among them refugees and sought from them the conditions they are leaving in. He also asked what had led them to flee South Sudan and what could be done to support them.

"I walked here from Yei (South Sudan) because of war in Yei passing through Congo. I arrived in March this year," Alex Seme, 28 told the secretary-general.

Seme appreciated the provision of solace and food but pointed out challenges in access to education and medication.

Imvepi refugee camp which government closed a few years back after refugees were repatriated back to South Sudan following a semblance of calm was reopened when war broke out again in the world's youngest country in 2015.

In the camp where he sat and listened to representatives from the host community, the secretary-general was told of the dire need for health services, schools and water resulting from the pressure exerted by the growing number of refugees.

"I thank you for receiving us and the generosity you have showed to refugees by sharing with them everything you have. Nobody can exceed your generosity," he said told locals that reside around the camp.

Stressing the need for a more sustainable approach than humanitarian interventions, Gueterres added, "We are aware of the pressures that this generosity is causing. In tomorrow's summit, we shall ask for support for both refugees and host community not just in the short-term but development support such as infrastructure."

In his remarks, Prime Minister Rugunda lauded UN agencies for the support rendered to government in regard to humanitarian aid, which he said has granted refugees dignified treatment.

"Government is working closely with neighbours under IGAD as well as South Sudan leaders, African Union and UN to get a political solution for South Sudan," Rugunda said.

The European Union commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, Christos Stylianides, US ambassador to Uganda, Deborah Malac, and EU ambassador Kristian Schmidt were also among the delegation that visited Imvepi camp on Thursday.

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The Independent - Daily Edition


February 23, 2017 Thursday  
First Edition


'I used to hate Muslims - until the day they became my next-door neighbours';
As the US reels from the impact of Donald Trump's travel ban, one American shares his story of how an unlikely friendship with two refugee families forced him to finally face his own prejudice. Andrew Buncombe reports


BYLINE: ANDREW BUNCOMBE


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 22


LENGTH: 1026 words


By his own admission, John Dutcher never had any time for "Muslims". In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, his anger grew. When he saw a Muslim couple in the supermarket, he would snarl to himself, especially if the woman's head was covered. There was even a time when he considered placing strips of bacon outside a local mosque, though he never did so.

And then something happened - something both very simple, and quite remarkable: a family of refugees moved in next door, and a process of transformation began. 

"There were two families that moved in across the hall from me. I'd seen them arrive," said Mr Dutcher, speaking from Omaha, Nebraska's largest city. "I said to the people they were with, if there was anything I could do to help, with the apartment or whatever, then they should just ask."

A year on, at a time when the US is reeling from the impact of Donald Trump's travel ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and his suspension of the country's refugee programme, Mr Dutcher, who voted for Mr Trump, has emerged as a voice of understanding and hope. When an interview he did with local television channel KETV went viral, many across the country were inspired by both his words and example.

Activists wondered that if a man who had held such strident, Islamophobic views could be turned around simply by meeting people he had previously simply given a label, what message might it carry for others.

"It's not in our human nature to go up to someone who does not look like you," said Lacey Studnicka, a development officer with the Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS), who has worked with refugees for 15 years.

She said she believed the key to changing people's minds was education. Part of her work involves travelling across Nebraska and giving talks in churches and community centres, sometimes with a former member of the refugee community. She said it was especially useful to visit rural areas. "Even if nobody in your community is a refugee, if you are able to hear the stories of someone, a little piece opens up," she said.

Nebraska is flat, conservative, largely rural and overwhelmingly white. In the 2016 presidential election it voted 58-33 in favour Mr Trump. The New York tycoon secured 85 per cent of the vote in 19 of the state's 93 counties. In western Grant County, of which the county seat is Hyannis, 93 per cent of people voted for him. The state's entire population is around 1.9 million.

Yet Nebraska has also proved very welcoming to refugees. Between October 2015 and September 2016, the so-called Cornhusker state welcomed 1,441 refugees, or 76 per 100,000 Nebraskans, according to a Pew Research Centre analysis. Per capita, Nebraska took more refugees than any other state, ahead of North Dakota, Idaho, Vermont and Arizona.

Officials say the state is a popular destination for refugees because the economy is strong, and there are jobs in the hospitality, meat-packing and services industries. More than 90 per cent of refugees coming to the state, are doing so to reunite with family members already there.

Anwar Rida, who lives in Lincoln, moved to Nebraska in 1999. He is originally from Iraq, and said that while Nebraska was a welcoming state for refugees, it was important for new arrivals to make an effort to become part of the community. His company offers free English classes to new arrivals, something he says is vital. "Nebraska is a lovely state, a nice environment. There are nice people, it's good for families," he said.

Last month, ten state politicians sponsored a resolution saying they "believe in protecting refugees" regardless of religion, a response to Mr Trump executive order that many believe targeted Muslims and assigned priority status to Christians.

"Many refugees have earned green cards and call this country home, and others have been shown, through extensive vetting, to bear good will toward our nation," said resolution LR27. "Refugees include people fleeing war and oppression and include children and families in need of safety." Yet, things are not that simple. The state's governor Pete Ricketts, a Republican, has defended Mr Trump's ban, calling Nebraska a "welcoming state" but disagreeing with the judge who ordered a stay on the president's order.

"I don't know why anybody in a foreign country would have any expectation they should be able to have a right to come to our country," he told reporters. "That's just nonsensical. That, if you're a foreign national you should have no expectation you should be able to come to the United States."

Meanwhile, two Nebraska refugee resettlement agencies are cutting jobs in the wake of Mr Trump's executive order on immigration. LFS said last week it was cutting 15 positions while the Refugee Empowerment Centre is losing three positions - decisions that were taken in anticipation of a drop in refugee arrivals.

Mr Dutcher said that while he supported Mr Trump's wish to tighten the US-Mexico border, he said he was frustrated that too many confused refugees from countries such as Syria and Iraq, with the general debate on immigration. The 61-year-old, who works for a commercial cleaning company, said his own transformation had come after many hours of prayer. He said he had been attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and that "there was a lot of change in my life that needed to be done".

He said the more he spoke with his new neighbours - sometimes making use of Google Translate - so he came to learn more of the journeys they had taken to reach Omaha. "As I found out more about them, they invited me into their homes. Some of these people came from Aleppo," he said, referring to Syria's devastated largest city.

He said the people whose apartments his new neighbours occupied had been meth addicts and drank heavily. Very quickly, the empty bottles and late night arguments, were replaced by the clutter of children who called him "big brother".

"If I had stayed in my comfort zone and had not reached out, I would never have changed. I would have stayed in that hateful mode," he said. "I was seeking change in my life. I give the credit to God. He listened to me and answered my prayers."


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The Guardian(London)


February 16, 2017 Thursday 2:17 PM GMT 


Home comforts: the Italian hotel giving refugees a showcase for their culinary skills;
Part of a government project, Villaggio La Brocchi is a hotel focused on helping refugees - and by allowing them to shape the menu gives guests a taste of east Africa amid the Tuscan hills


BYLINE: Silvia Marchetti


SECTION: TRAVEL; Version:1


LENGTH: 647 words


In the Tuscan countryside north of Florence, the scent of ginger, cardamon, cloves and other exotic spices fill the air. Come evening, guests dining on a terrace overlooking hills, olive groves and medieval hamlets will tuck into a traditional east African spread: injera flatbreads topped with vegetables or meat and spiced with saffron, ginger and curcuma; sambusa - fried dumplings stuffed with lentils or meat; or perhaps zigini - hot tomato stew from Eritrea made with lamb or beef, and seasoned with berbere spice mix. The incongruous meal is prepared by Sara Tagi, a 28-year-old Ethiopian chef at Ethnos restaurant in Villaggio La Brocchi.

The classic Tuscan views from the village draw visitors, but the main attractions are the food and the chance to meet and mingle with refugees from Africa, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon and Kosovo. 

Three years ago Tagi made the treacherous journey from Libya to the island of Lampudesa by sea. She was one of the "lucky" ones: not everybody on board survived.

"Our boat's engine broke down. We had no food for days - never slept. Some people fell into the water. They just died, drowning," she recalls. "Luckily, the Italian coastguard saved us before our boat sank, otherwise I wouldn't be here now."

After arriving in Italy, Sara applied for asylum and was offered the chance to work at Villaggio La Brocchi, one of two hotels in Italy set up by the government to provide work and accommodation to refugees.

Empty and neglected buildings on a former cattle farm, were given a new lease of life in 2014 under the Italian interior ministry's Protection System for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (SPRAR). Today, the hotel is home to 38 refugee families, who live in apartments with shared kitchens; guests are accommodated in 10 rooms in another building, called La Tinaia, ( progettoaccoglienza.org, with dorm beds from (EURO)25 a night B&B) decorated with wooden furniture and furnishings handmade by the refugees. There is also a library, conference room, exhibition space and classrooms where refugees attend Italian language lessons.

The local population is encourage to interact with their new neighbours. Women from nearby towns come for cooking classes led by refugees from Syria and Ethiopia. At weekends, local and refugee children play together in the garden.

"Sara's black bread is now famous in the Tuscan countryside," says regular customer Maria Bianchi, from Siena. "I come here just for this and want to know the secret ingredients, but she never tells me."

SPRAR was set up by the government to tackle Italy's immigration crisis. (Since the start of 2016, an estimated 200,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores, according to the UN refugee agency.) Established in 2014, the programme has so far involved more than 400 Italian towns and accommodated around 30,000 refugees. Other projects include shops such as clothing boutique Nuele near Vicenza; an artisan crochet programme in Galatina, Puglia, where refugees sell their designs to local shops; and a fruit and vegetable scheme in Latina, Lazio, where refugees are given land to grow their own produce, which they then sell at market stalls.

The only other hotel in the scheme is Hotel Giardino (doubles from (EURO)50) in the ski resort of Breno, near Brescia. Here, refugees work in reception, the bar and the kitchens, and take guests on trekking and biking tours across hills dotted with Roman temples, medieval castles and prehistoric caves. They also guide visitors on wine-tasting tours and snowshoe expeditions to old mountain dairy huts, called malghe, to see how cheese is still made in the traditional way.

Food served at the hotel's restaurant comes from nearby farms and orchards, and is a mix of local specialities such as hay soup, and dishes from refugees' home countries. Over the next year the government aims to settle a further 4,500 refugees under the scheme.


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UK Government News


February 27, 2017 Monday 10:26 PM EST 


Minister Wharton reinforces UK support for refugees in Uganda


LENGTH: 571 words


U.K., Feb. 27 -- The UK Government made the following announcement:

International Development Minister James Wharton reaffirms UK support for refugees in Uganda as Africa's largest refugee hosting nation.

During the week that famine has been declared in some parts of South Sudan, Minister Wharton saw the life-saving impact of UK aid in Uganda when he visited a centre where refugees are registered and longer term refugee settlements near the border with South Sudan. Uganda now hosts over one million refugees, with the vast majority from South Sudan.

With five million people in neighbouring South Sudan facing the threat of going without enough food and almost 2,400 people every day being forced to flee their homes from devastating conflict and cross the border into Uganda, the UK's support is getting urgently needed food, water and medicine to those in desperate need. 

Minister Wharton met with women and children at Impevi refugee centre and Rhino settlement area in Northern Uganda, who have been displaced by the horrors of war and sexual violence. He heard about the challenges of getting life-saving humanitarian aid to those who need it.

In 2016, the UK's support to refugees in Uganda has provided:

food for 650,000 people including 45,000 children

shelter for 56,250 people

blankets, water containers and sanitary towels for 64,000 people and

vaccinated 210,000 children.

International Development Minister James Wharton said:

South Sudan faces an urgent and severe humanitarian crisis with almost half the population in desperate need, which impacts on the whole region. The first famine for six years has now been declared and the threat of starvation and ongoing violence is forcing over one million people to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries like Uganda.

"Uganda is now home to more refugees than any other country in Africa, and I was proud to see first hand that lives are being saved every day with the UK's support. Alongside this, Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee policies in the world, where refugees are given land, jobs and integrated into communities, giving people fleeing conflict hope for the future.

"The UK will continue to play a leading role in helping encourage the longer-term stability of both South Sudan, Uganda and the broader region."

Minister Wharton also met with British businesses in Uganda and the Ugandan Minister for Trade Amelia Kyambadde to discuss further trade and investment opportunities which will boost economic development and help the poorest stand on their own two feet, while also benefiting UK companies.

As set out in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfids-economic-development-strategy-2017">DFID's Economic Development Strategy</a>, UK support is helping Uganda and other countries industrialise faster, trade more and create new and productive jobs for its growing young population.

On a trip to a local family planning clinic in Kanyogoga, a settlement in Kampala, the Minister met people who are benefiting from a UK-aid supported programme that is increasing access to quality family planning services in Uganda, where half of the population of is under 15 and women have, on average, six children. Family planning is an integral part of planning for Uganda's future. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com


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MailOnline


February 6, 2017 Monday 8:39 AM GMT 


Child refugees are being recruited by ISIS to travel to Europe and hundreds have gone missing since arriving in the UK, terror experts warn 


BYLINE: GARETH DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 584 words



Terror groups like ISIS are recruiting unaccompanied child refugees by paying for them to get into Europe.  

A report from counter-extremism firm the Quilliam Foundation also warned hundreds of under-18s have gone missing in the UK since migrating. 

The youngsters' passage to Europe and the UK is being funded by the terror groups, who hand over cash to human smugglers to get them over the border having radicalised them at some stage along the way. 

Terrorists are also actively recruiting in refugee camps and a new government strategy isn't expected to address the issues until May.   

Militants give out food to the children and attempt to buy their allegiance by paying for the first leg of their journey to Europe. 

'Children and young people who are indoctrinated and recruited by IS are an important resource,' the report says.

Having gained entry to countries in Europe, many children vanish from the care system. 

This is understood to be over fears they will not be granted asylum, while others are abducted, trafficked further or sexually exploited, the report said. 

The foundation's report says extremists may attempt to infiltrate refugee groups and radicalise young minds at any stage of the trip.

Figures from 2015 show 340 children went missing between January and September and that 132 of those remained unaccounted for at the end of the year. 

The government's answer to this is expected to include measures to increase the amount of available foster placements and supported accommodation. 

Lily Caprani, Unicef UK deputy executive director, said: 'Currently, too many children with a legal right be in the UK are forced into the hands of criminal traffickers and smugglers because no system is in place to get them to safety. 

'We need to ensure that children in danger are helped by the law, cared for and educated, and not pulled into a new horror by the lawless. 

'This shows why it is so urgent for our Government to step up efforts to get unaccompanied children out of dangerous camps and into homes waiting for them in the UK.'

Rosalind Ereira from Solidarity with Refugees said: 'Among the most eye-opening points in this report is the fact that while most of us understand that our failure to provide safe passage to refugees endangers refugee lives, we might not understand that it also creates a threat to our own national security. 

'Money paid by refugees to smugglers not only helps to fund Islamic State activities, but refugees are signed up to support IS in exchange for their travel. 

'Where we fail to offer security to refugees, we leave the door open for radicalisation. 

'We need to understand that the provision of safe and legal routes for refugees is in the best interests of all of us.'

Refugees making their way to Europe via the Mediterranean may have to pay smugglers up to $560 for passage towards the coast.

ISIS, capitalising on this route, offer free passage to those willing to join the terror group and the militants are also able to provide a degree of security. 

The report says: 'The financial lure is ever-present on the refugee journey - to those reaching the Mediterranean coast, ISIS offer potential recruits up to $1,000 to join the organisation.'


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Lancashire Evening Post


March 22, 2017 Wednesday


Readers' letters - March 22


LENGTH: 943 words


We should do more to help refugees

We are in the worst refugee crisis since the end of the Second World War and a main contributing factor has been the catastrophic war in Syria.

Public attitudes to refugees and asylum seekers fluctuate unpredictably.

A great deal of sympathy was aroused when a lifeless toddler was washed up on the Turkish shore in scenes which were seen by millions worldwide.  

Here was a general problem suddenly and acutely made personal.

Then the never-ending columns of refugees began to be portrayed as invaders, alien and hostile, and the mood in Europe changed.

Nobody abandons their home, their possessions, their whole way of life, on a whim, and if you and your family are in constant fear of annihilation by bomb or shell and your town lies in ruins around you, the need to escape to somewhere safe becomes overwhelming.

Almost all refugees seek asylum in neighbouring countries and these too are almost always poor countries, their resources strained to the limit by a grossly swollen population.

Britain is host to fewer than one per cent of the world's refugees. 

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees believe that, by the end of 2015, there were almost five million Syrian refugees - 2,539 of these claimed asylum in Britain.

Lord Dubs persuaded Parliament last year to give asylum to 3,000 or so unaccompanied refugee children, obviously all at grave risk of every kind of abuse.

This agreement was suddenly and arbitrarily withdrawn by the Home Secretary earlier this year and the number was reduced to 350.

Surely we can, and should do, much better than this?

John Wayland

Lytham

traffic

Attitude leads to problems

Why has this Fishergate Bus Lane caused a problem?

I'll tell you what is happening.

I have regularly stood waiting for my park and ride bus outside Boots chemist.

I have watched cars, especially 4X4s, BMWs and Audis, blatantly ignore the well signposted (in my opinion) signs telling anyone who is supposed to be driving, and being aware while driving a vehicle, of an instruction telling them that the only vehicle allowed to go down Fishergate is a bus, taxi or a cycle.

It even has a picture of the aforesaid vehicles which are allowed down the road.

But, no, I have seen these motorists drive up in a queue.

Other cars turn right or left, but not them!

They just watch as the others turn, and they just blatantly ignore the sign and drive past us at the bus stop, with noses in the air!

That is what is happening.

Nothing to do with them not seeing the sign, they just think they are above the law.

Why not put a few of the same signs on the lamp posts and another few before the junction? Maybe they will see them, or maybe not.

Drivers are whinging because they have been caught.

Janette Ellwood

via email

disability

Please consider vision services

I am writing to you regarding vision rehabilitation services for blind and partially sighted people living in my local area.

When a person loses their sight this can be a life-changing experience.

Vision rehabilitation offers invaluable support, equipping people with the skills and confidence to live independently.

This can reduce, prevent or delay the need for more expensive care support in future.

As national charity RNIB has stated, blind and partially sighted people are at risk of being left behind unless these services are properly resourced.

I understand that councils across England are now deciding on their budgets for the coming year and urge our local council to ensure that vision rehabilitation services are properly funded and supported.

If anyone else would like to do the same, or find out more about this campaign, they can go to www.rnib.org.uk/seeandplan or contact the RNIB Campaigns Team on 020 7391 2123.

Ariel Goldmann

Preston

transport

Ownership

of railways

Re: Rail Delivery Group claiming to increase capacity by 6,400 trains a week.

Like most people we

will believe this when we see it. There simply aren't the trains and staff available to make this plan happen. Fault for that lies smack at the door of more than two decades of privatisation.

The train operators are already struggling to run current services and timetables due to a chronic lack of investment and the drive across the industry is to hack back on staff in the search for fatter profits.

Our guards are in the frontline of that attack on jobs and safety.

Like so much of the spin from our rip-off private train companies, these big promises of additional capacity are doomed to turn to dust.

With the British public paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on rammed-out and unreliable trains, the only solution to this on-going transport crisis is public ownership.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash

via email

heritage

£10m to ruin noble building

I can't express how much I agree with Ian Flitcroft's comments in today's

Post (Don't disfigure glorious Harris', LP March 16).

Why would we spend £10m on ruining the front of such a noble building (artist's impression of the new-look Harris is pictured, above left, copyright Purcell Architects)?

Have we got that much money to spare, and can't we find something better to invest in?

Who decided it needed doing anyway?

Are there people out

there who can't find the entrance?

Still, this is

Preston.

I am pleased they don't lump it with the other

lovely buildings we have had in the past and knock it down!

ALLAN FAZACKERLEY

via email

finance

Unfair changes to pensions

It is wrong that people who have contributed for the full 35 years under the old scheme get a lower state pension than the people under the new scheme.

In the case of the former, the Government should pay them the same amount also - of £155.65.

H irsch

via email


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 27, 2017 Friday 7:10 PM GMT 


Holocaust survivors say Donald Trump's refugee ban 'tragically' similar to 1930s;
America closed its doors to immigrants in 1921 and throughout the Second World War


BYLINE: Peter Walker


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 691 words


Holocaust survivors and campaigners have compared Donald Trump's immigration ban to the unprecedented plight of the Jews.

Mark Hetfield, the chief executive of Jewish refugee programme HIAS, said Mr Trump's executive order on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was a "tragic irony".

Survivors of the genocidal horror, waged by the Nazi regime, have also said America's refusal to accept child victims of the Holocaust resembles closing borders to Syrian children. 

Read more

Human rights group voice alarm at Donald Trump's 'weekly hate list'

The US President signed an executive order this week that temporarily bans people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including refugees from war-torn Syria, entering the country.

"It's a deep and tragic irony that Donald Trump is slamming the door in the faces of refugees right before International Holocaust Remembrance Day," Mr Hetfield told

Haaretz.com

.

"The entire refugee convention came out of the Holocaust and the failure of the international community to protect Jews and survivors."

Mr Hetfield, thepresidentof HIAS, which was formed in 1881 to help Jews already fleeing Eastern Europe, said the US had reached "rock bottom" and the "lowest point we've seen since the 1920s".

The US shut its doors to immigrants in 1921 and did not lift it until after the Second World War.

"What is America without refugees," said the US citizen.

"How can Trump claim 'America first' and abandon the values that make us America?When refugees come here, they're considered Americans, not refugees. That's what gives us credibility in the world."

Canadian immigrant Gerda Freiberg, from the former Upper Silesian region in eastern Europe, survived three years of Nazi slave labour in a women's camp in Sudetenland.

The 91-year-old described how camps for displaced people set up by the allies, during the Second World War, were as important as refugee camps now.

Denial: Timothy Spall on playing Holocaust denier David Irving

She added: "There may be terrorists among some, but there are more decent people among them."

Manny Lindenbaum, who was chased by the Nazis as a small child from his hometown of Unna in Germany, in 1938, said: "When we talk about closing the borders or looking at refugees as enemies, they are talking about us."

Mr Lindenbaum, who now lives in Jackson, New Jersey, attendeda candle lighting Hanukkah ceremony with the Obamas in 2015.

"America is refugees, that's what America is, the thought that they are a danger to us," he said. "That's how it was when we came here. The US didn't want refugees from Germany, including Jews, because they were fearful of criminal activity."

Manny Lindenbaum, pictured at a Hanakkah ceremony at the White House in December 2015, talked of how the US was built with refugees (AFP/Getty)

Miriam Caine,the vice president of the Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Philadelphia, alsothought "closing the door to immigrants is 100 per cent wrong".

The 83-year-old added: "That's what hurts the most - when the door is shut in the face of a child who is not given the opportunity for a better life."

At least six million Jews are estimated to have died in the Holocaust, including 1.5m children.

Their comments came after a spike in hate crimes in the US, with897reports recorded in the 10 days after Mr Trump's triumph.

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Speaking to

The Independent

, the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day Trust chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said: "I think any anti-Semitic comments or discriminatory language just adds fuel to discourse and just adds fuel to this kind of language.

"But I'm reluctant to make any direct comparisons between the Holocaust and his [Donald Trump's] direct language.

"People marking HMD should learn about the past and reflect upon it and the continued relevance and what steps they can take to make a better world."

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which also commemorates victims ofgenocidesince the Holocaust including in Darfurand Yugoslavia, will see around 6,000 local events.

This is up from5,500 in 2016and 3,500 in 2015.


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ENP Newswire


January 27, 2017 Friday


-IMF-Return of Afghan Refugees to Afghanistan Surges as Country Copes to Rebuild


LENGTH: 1046 words


IMF-Return of Afghan Refugees to Afghanistan Surges as Country Copes to Rebuild.

Afghanistan experienced a large influx of refugees in 2016.

This is seriously aggravating the government's capacity to absorb refugees in an already difficult environment of high unemployment and internally displaced people after decades of conflict.
 



While the Afghan government works to strengthen internal coordination and strategic planning, the international community also needs to play a vital role in providing financial and humanitarian support to avert a crisis and limit the damage to Afghanistan's already challenging social and security conditions, and development prospects.

From trickle to flood

Aid officials estimate that more than 700,000 refugees returned to Afghanistan in 2016. Afghans-the second largest refugee group after Syrians, according to the UN's refugee agency-are primarily returning from Pakistan, often not voluntarily. There are also returnees from Iran and to a lesser extent from Europe. Analysts project that up to 21/2 million will follow over the next 18 months, which will add nearly 10 percent to Afghanistan's population (see infographic below). To put this in perspective, this would be akin to 50 million migrants entering the European Union over a two-year period.

Many of the Afghans who lived abroad for decades are returning to a country facing conflict, insecurity, and widespread poverty. Given the difficult economic climate, prospects for returnees are generally poor. While there are also wealthier returnees, a typical returning refugee has a high risk of falling into poverty-they are typically laborers and workers in the informal economy with limited savings, or small business owners who are forced to liquidate their assets at fire sale prices.

Moreover, the prospects for absorbing returning refugees are further complicated by the existence of more than one million internally displaced people, the number of which significantly increased in 2016 as the insurgency intensified. Together with the large number of people who already live in poverty in Afghanistan, these problems will severely stretch the country's capacity to cope.

Economics of reverse exodus

When a country receives a large influx of refugees over a short period, significant social and economic effects are likely, which are exacerbated in poorer countries like Afghanistan. On the positive side, returning refugees generally share the same culture as the local population, facilitating assimilation. In addition, increased spending, both by the private and public sectors, as well as increased output if the incoming refugees are able to find jobs, can contribute positively to economic growth both in the short and medium term.

However, increased demand for food, consumer goods, health services, and housing can put upward pressure on prices and rents, negatively affecting the poor. And the increased supply of labor is likely to raise the already very high unemployment rate and put downward pressure on wages. For instance, in the case of Lebanon-although there is little reliable data-surveys suggest that the inflow of refugees has had a significant impact on wages, particularly in the low-skill and youth sectors, where workers are most vulnerable. Equally important, the scale of the inflow has placed an undue burden on Lebanon's already-stretched public services and infrastructure.

In Afghanistan, this raises the prospect of longer-term effects on economic and social development. For example, if basic services such as education and health cannot keep up with increased demand, some human capital-the stock of productive skills, talents, and health of the labor force-could be lost.

Robust strategy and coordination needed

The government has put in place policies for returnees and internally displaced people, that guides the implementation of the authorities' response. Going forward, it will be critical that this strategy is implemented effectively to deal with increasing pressures on already stretched public services. These efforts should focus on the provision of basic services to meet the immediate survival needs of the returnees, cash transfers to sustain a basic living standard, assistance with job and housing search, all with a focus on urban areas, the location of choice for many refugees.

For example, Afghans with the appropriate documents were provided with a cash grant of $ 400 per person when they returned to Afghanistan. But, such grants have been suspended as Pakistan has extended the refugees' stay until March 2017. Furthermore, the most vulnerable undocumented returnee families receive a one-month package of support at the border and a transportation cash grant. Internally displaced families also receive one-month support assistance.

Despite these efforts, undocumented refugees are particularly vulnerable with limited access to basic services. Given Afghanistan's tight budgetary constraints, the international community-including bilateral and multilateral donors and aid agencies-can address these needs with financial support. To this end, the UN has appealed for $ 240 million in humanitarian assistance for the returning refugees (as part of the broader 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan). The international community needs to rise to this challenge.

The IMF is also helping. The Fund has often provided economic policy advice and technical assistance to member countries dealing with large-scale refugee and migration issues . With regard to Afghanistan, the IMF is supporting the government's reform program through a concessional financing arrangement, the Extended Credit Facility, approved in July 2016. This arrangement provides Afghanistan with access to $ 45 million over three years, and offers highly concessional lending terms, that is, very low interest rates and long maturity.

The focus is on helping the government to maintain macroeconomic stability through these difficult times, and to lay the foundation for stronger and more inclusive private sector led growth, including by supporting the government's efforts to strengthen government institutions, improve public service delivery, and support job creation.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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Mondaq Business Briefing


February 22, 2017 Wednesday


Canada: The Safe Third Country Agreement in the Trump Era


BYLINE: Aris Daghighian


LENGTH: 507 words


In the wake of President Trump's Executive Orders on immigration last month, there has been much talk in Canada of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA). 

The STCA is an agreement between Canada and the United States regarding how refugee claimants are handled along our shared land border. The agreement came into effect in 2004 and requires that refugees must seek protection in the first country they arrive between Canada or the U.S., unless they qualify for an exception. Therefore, a refugee who first arrives in the U.S. must submit a claim for protection in the U.S. and cannot appear at a Canadian border to make a claim here. The reverse is also true for those who first arrive in Canada.

The main exception is if the refugee has close family members in Canada or the U.S. and therefore is allowed to make a claim in their country of choice so as not to be separated from their family.

Notably, however, the agreement only applies to refugee claimants seeking entry to Canada from the U.S. at land border crossings by car, train, or on foot. It does not apply to those arriving by air. It also does not apply to those who are already in Canada and report to an immigration office to make a claim for protection.

It is for this reason that an increasing number of refugees have been crossing into Canada surreptitiously instead of reporting themselves first at a border crossing. Once they are in Canada, they can then voluntarily report to an immigration office to have their claim processed and adjudicated. A National Post article (link: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/liberal-government-testing-the-limits-of-canadians-attitudes-to-refugees-poll) this week reports on the increased number of individuals making such dangerous crossings. This includes 452 asylum claims made at the border in Quebec in January alone, more than three times the year before.

A number of organizations, including the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL), have called for the suspension of the STCA on the grounds that the U.S. is no longer a safe-third country for refugees following President Trump's executive orders. This is especially so, they argue, as it relates to refugees from the seven countries enumerated in the ban.

The Canadian government, however, has opted to take a more cautious approach until the effects of the ban are more fully known. One countervailing consideration cited by the Immigration Minister is the large influx of refugees who may make claims in Canada en masse should the STCA be suspended. This may place a large burden on IRCC's processing abilities given existing backlogs.

For more information on this issue, please contact us.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.


Mr Aris Daghighian
Green and Spiegel LLP
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Toronto
Ontario M5H 2Y2
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E-mail: estherd@gands.com
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The Guardian(London)


June 22, 2017 Thursday 2:26 PM GMT 


'I feel betrayed': the Somali refugees sent from safety into a war zone;
Somali families repatriated from neighbouring Kenya feel let down by Nairobi and the UN refugee agency, and fear for their safety and survival


BYLINE: Moulid Hujale and Karen McVeigh


SECTION: GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT; Version:1


LENGTH: 1420 words


Families repatriated to Somalia from Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya say they feel abandoned and let down by the UN after officials used small cash payments to encourage them to return home, where a hunger and security crisis awaited.

Many travelled back to Somalia only to find themselves in a far worse position than they had been in the refugee camp, with no access to food, shelter or medicines. Having lost their legal refugee status by crossing the border, they were no longer entitled to any help.

Sacdiya Noor, 38, a mother of three children, said she felt betrayed by UN aid workers and the Kenyan authorities, who told her it was safe to go back to Mogadishu in 2015.

"There was no security in the city, no free services and nothing special [to help] returnees," she said. "There are explosions every day. Food is expensive; you have to pay for everything, even if you are sick." 

Noor is among thousands of Somalis who have now made the long trek back to Kenya, where they felt safer. "I left my country the second time for the safety of my children. I feel betrayed because they [the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Kenyan authorities] told me it is safe to return. I tried my best but it was too much for me to bear as a single mother with no one to stand with me. I am stuck here with no rights. It is like they are saying, 'You either die of gunshot in Somalia or come back to starve in Dadaab'," she said.

The plight of repatriated Somalis who fled for the second time emerged as the UK announced a £75m, three-year programme, aimed at tackling the central Mediterranean transit route to Europe, to enable voluntary returns and repatriation and to assist governments in Africa to support asylum seekers.

Related: Rights groups welcome court ruling to block Kenya refugee camp closure

Since the Kenyan government announced it would close the world's largest refugee camp and stepped up its repatriation programme to Somalia in 2016, almost 60,000 people, roughly a quarter of the camp's population, have left. The Kenyan government is no longer registering new arrivals from Somalia or processing asylum claims.

Dadaab camp has been a long-running sore between Kenya, Somalia and the UN, with the Kenyans claiming it represents a security threat. The Nairobi government has been accused of ramping up rhetoric on closure when it has been politically expedient, and currently it is appealing a decision by Kenyan high court judges that shutting down the camp is unlawful.

Noor said her situation has become unbearable since she returned to Dadaab 10 months ago, explaining that her lack of official refugee status means she has to rely on the generosity of others in sharing meagre rations with her and her children.

She is far from alone. Other asylum seekers and refugees who spoke to the Guardian from inside Dadaab, some of whom had been displaced twice, told similar stories. They talked of the danger, persecution and hunger they saw in Somalia.

The severe drought, which has brought Somalia to the brink of famine, comes alongside the UN's own warnings that the country is in the grip of a cholera and measles outbreak. After the failure of this year's rains, the number of Somali people forced to leave their villages and land has reached more than 1.7 million.

Last September, a Human Rights Watch report said refugees in Dadaab were effectively being forced to return to Somalia in a major breach of international law, since the 1951 refugee convention forbids the return or "refoulement" of refugees to countries where they may be at risk. HRW criticised the UNHCR for not giving refugees accurate information about the security situation.

On the outskirts of Ifo II, one of four camps making up Dadaab, Madina Issack, 21, said she left her homeland for the second time because she feared for her life. Issack, a mother of four, from Saakow, a town in the Juba region that is under al-Shabaab control, said she fled with her husband last November after he was arrested for smoking.

"Al-Shabaab don't like the people who come from Kenya," said Issack. "They accuse them of spying for the Kenyan government and execute them in public."

The family first returned to the relative safety of Kismayo, but were forced to move after discovering there was little support for returnees and displaced people. "Some of the people we travelled with were welcomed by their relatives in the city, but we had no one to help us," Issack added. "The little support we received from UNHCR finished in a few weeks so we went ahead to settle in our hometown in Saakow. It is easy to get into the town but very difficult to get out.

"After staying nine months trying to get used to life, my husband was arrested by al-Shabaab. He was later released on bail but we had to run away and seek asylum in Kenya again."

The UNHCR estimates there are 3,570 unregistered Somalis in Dadaab, a third of whom arrived in 2017. Only 122 of them have been repatriated, it said, 79 of whom cited security concerns as the reason for their return.

Related: Somalia famine fears prompt UN call for 'immediate and massive' reaction

But refugee groups say this is likely to be an underestimate. Victor Nyamori, from Amnesty International in Kenya, said: "There are large numbers of refugees who were given money by the UNHCR and the government, and they do not want to identify themselves."

The Refugee Council of Kenya, an organisation that monitors the border, said an estimated 11,100 people had crossed the border from Somalia into Kenya since January.

Nimca Samatar, one of the refugee community leaders in Ifo II camp, said she has seen hundreds of Somalis entering the camp in the past few months. "People are coming every day, just like [during] the 2011 famine, they are fleeing the drought with malnourished children and elderly," said Samatar.

"We collect some food rations from other refugees and distribute them to the new arrivals but that is like a drop in the ocean. They need shelter, food, medicine and protection. Kenya must register these people, and I would urge the UNHCR and other agencies to support them, otherwise they will die in front us."

The UNHCR said that while the security situation remains a "matter for concern", it only supports returns to specific areas that are considered safe and have good humanitarian access. It also monitors the situation with regard to returnees alongside the Norwegian Refugee Council, it said.

Yvonne Ndege, the UNHCR's spokesperson in Kenya, said: "The UNHCR has been sharing updated 'country of origin information' with refugees in order to allow them to make well-informed decisions on the situation in the main areas of return, notably about drought and cholera. This has prompted many to reconsider their return to Somalia. The impact of drought and cholera has regularly been discussed during cross-border meetings since January 2017 and this situation has, for instance, prompted suspension of the support to return to Baidoa, which is still in force."

The UN agency is not allowed to carry out formal registration, she said, but it continues to advocate the registration of all new arrivals and undocumented persons in the Dadaab camps.

Of the 122 returnees in Dadaab who had been repatriated, she said: "While only one case has been reactivated, those coming back have access to basic services such as education and health. The situation of this group is under close review despite the fear of the government that a swift and systematic reactivation would likely be a pull factor for the 67,267 who have returned so far to Somalia."

The Kenyan government denied any suggestion that the returns are forced.

While the number of Somalis repatriated has slowed in recent weeks, families in Dadaab are continuing to make what one father described as "one of the most painful decisions I have ever taken in my life".

In a transit centre in Dadaab, waiting for his departure to the homeland he left 10 years ago, Madar Gaas, 47, feared what lay ahead for his family, but felt he had no alternative. "Kenya asked us to leave and then UN reduced the food rations," he said. "Then other aid agencies started to pull out of the camp, scaling down the live-saving assistance we used to get. That is why I volunteered to go back to Somalia, even though I am risking the future of my children. There is no free education and healthcare in Somalia.

"You can be killed any time in Somalia. I am concerned about the safety of my children, and because of the drought everything is expensive."


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FinancialWire


May 23, 2017 Tuesday


UN refugee agency ramps up response as Libya's humanitarian crisis deepens


LENGTH: 572 words


Conflict, insecurity, political instability and a collapsing economy have contributed to the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Libya, prompting the United Nations refugee agency to announce plans to step-up its presence and programmes there. 



Amid the increasing complexity of refugee and migrant movements through and from Libya, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi visited Tripoli yesterday where he met refugees and migrants in some of Libya's many detention centres.

"I was shocked at the harsh conditions in which refugees and migrants are held, generally due to lack of resources," Mr. Grandi said. "Children, women and men who have suffered so much already should not have to endure such hardship."

Some 300,000 Libyans have been displaced by ongoing conflict. In all, more than 1.3 million people - including internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as vulnerable Libyans, host communities, migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers - are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

According to Mr. Grandi's Office (UNHCR), hundreds of thousands of people in the North African country have been affected by the collapse of law and order, absent or insufficient health care assistance, essential medicines, food, safe drinking water, shelter and education. In response, UNHCR is ramping up its existing humanitarian operations and is strengthening cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to leverage the respective strengths of both organizations.

"We should not underestimate the challenges of operating in an unstable and volatile environment, such as Libya today," stressed Mr. Grandi.

In addition to new offices and community development centres for refugees and asylum-seekers, UNHCR is also scaling up its presence in places of disembarkation for people rescued or intercepted at sea, in close cooperation with IOM and other partners.

At the same time, access and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers in detention facilities run by the Libyan authorities will be increased, focusing on lifesaving humanitarian activities and advocating for the release of detained refugees and asylum-seekers.

"Our ability to access and effectively deliver much needed protection and assistance is a constant challenge. The people we are trying to help and my staff live and work under enormous strain and risks," said the High Commissioner.

In the last year and a half, UNHCR has been able to secure the release of more than 800 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. The agency is trying to find durable solutions for them.

UNHCR will also boost its programmes to assist Libyan IDPs and host communities who are in dire need of improved access to basic services, which have severely deteriorated as a result of the crisis. Among other activities, small-scale, community-based projects of immediate impact are envisaged for the benefit of host communities, displaced persons, refugees and asylum-seekers.

Libya continues to be the main departing point for refugees and migrants seeking to reach Europe. Mr. Grandi was accompanied to Tripoli by Vincent Cochetel, Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, who will be coordinating UNHCR's cross-regional response to the complexities of mixed migration movements across the Mediterranean, and by Amin Awad, UNHCR's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.



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The Guardian(London)


March 2, 2017 Thursday 4:48 PM GMT 


Calais mayor bans distribution of food to migrants;
Natacha Bouchart says handing out of meals poses security threat, as city tries to stop establishment of new refugee camp


BYLINE: Amelia Gentleman


SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 653 words


The mayor of Calais has banned the distribution of food to migrants as part of a campaign to prevent the establishment of a new refugee camp as hundreds of people return to the port three months after the original one was demolished.

Natacha Bouchart, from the centre-right Les Républicains party, said she would implement policies "to prevent the distribution of meals to migrants", and legal documents setting out the restrictions were put up in the vicinity of the camp on Thursday. Officials have already obstructed attempts by local charities to open showers for teenage migrants in the town. 

Food distribution volunteers said they had been forced to do so in secret because of a heightened police presence. Refugee charities said they would ignore the ban, but were taking legal advice.

The mayoral decree, dated 2 March, said the "regular, persistent and large presence of individuals distributing meals to migrants" in the area around the site of the former camp posed a threat to the peace and security of the area. It banned any "repeated, prolonged gatherings" in the area, effectively making food distribution an offence.

Sarah Arrom, who has been helping to distribute food with the charity Utopia56 for the last four months, said police had fired teargas to prevent volunteers from giving breakfast to around 30 teenagers in a field near the motorway outside the city on Thursday.

"They wanted to stop the distribution and they wanted to stop people from sleeping in the area," she said. "There has never been teargas before when we've been trying to hand out food"

Twice this week teenage refugees had been detained by police after visiting the Secours Catholique centre, which offers showers for refugees in the city, she said.

"Conditions are becoming more and more problematic for the migrants. They don't sleep, they can't take a shower, they are more and more tired. We are really worried about their future."

Arrom said the number of refugees was increasing, but donations had dwindled and the charity no longer had sleeping bags or emergency foil blankets to hand out. "We have less and less to give them; donations are almost non-existent."

Until Thursday, Utopia56 was distributing 250 hot meals a night, a sharp increase on last month, with 80% of recipients aged from 13 to 22, and most of them from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, she said. The charity would continue to distribute food despite the ban, "for the simple reason that people are hungry".

Related: MPs warn over child refugees sleeping rough after Dubs scheme closure

Christian Salomé, the president of the Auberge des Migrants charity, said a ban would be catastrophic for refugee children.

"Adults will always find a way to buy food in the shops, but for minors it will be a real problem - they have no money at all."

He said no one had precise figures for the number of refugees around Calais. "People are arriving all the time and not many are getting through [to the UK]."

Renke Meuwese, who works with Refugee Community Kitchen and Help Refugees, said the kitchens were making about 400 meals a day, up from about 50 last month.

He said police seemed to be particularly concerned about reducing the visibility of refugees. "They are trying to make the refugees invisible, so they make it harder to distribute in town than the countryside. We can't distribute at day so we have to do it at night. They are trying to push them out of sight."

France's interior minister, Bruno Le Roux, said during a visit to Calais on Wednesday that the opening of any new migrant reception centre would attract more people to the city, but added: "We will not prevent the distribution of meals."

However, the mayor said she disagreed, "even if it is difficult to say so, on a human level", and promised to implement measures to prevent food distribution, according the to the local paper, La Voix du Nord. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 7, 2017 Tuesday 5:51 PM GMT 


Record numbers of refugees fleeing United States for Canada;
Charities are warning an even greater influx could be on the horizon with Donald Trump in the White House


BYLINE: Lucy Pasha-Robinson


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 615 words


Record numbers of refugees in the US are fleeing to Canada as uncertainty about Donald Trump's immigration policies continues.

The Welcome Place refugee agency in the central province of Manitoba, said it had helped 91 people since November, more than the total number of claimants it normally sees in a year.

Most braved freezing conditions to cross the border, walking miles through snow-covered prairie fields into Canada so they could avoid official border checks. 

Maggie Yeboah, president of the Ghanaian Union of Manitoba, said that two men lost all their fingers to frostbite in December and nearly froze to death.

Read more

Justin Trudeau says refugees are welcome in Canada

Trump fails to mention white man who killed six Muslims in Quebec

Donald Trump tweeted about The Louvre- Nothing about Quebec

Canadians raise £350,000 for Muslims affected by mosque shooting

"We haven't had something before like this," she said. "We don't know what to do."

She added that 27 Ghanaian men had walked to Manitoba from the United States since last summer. Her organisation helps refugees access medical attention and housing.

Charities are now warning that an even greater influx could be on the horizon after Donald Trump issued an executive order temporarily suspending America's refugee resettlement programme and permanently barring Syrian refugees from entering the US.

The measures,which have since been suspended, also barred citizens from Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria, from travelling to the US. It resulted in travellers being detained or deported even if they had a valid visa or green card.

"They will make a dash for Canada, whether they are going to go through cold weather to die or not," said Abdikheir Ahmed, a Somali immigrant in Manitoba's capital Winnipeg who helps refugees make immigration claims.

Read more

Thousands attend funeral for Quebec mosque shooting victims

More than 7,000 refugee applicants entered Canada in 2016 through land ports of entry from the United States, up 63 per cent from the previous year, according to theCanada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Over 2,000 more entered "irregularly" during a similar time period, without official authorization. Somecrossed unmonitored fields along the 5,525 border - the longest in the world between two countries.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to admitting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees when he took office in 2015.

To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada

- Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) 28 January 2017

"While the majority of the world is turning their backs and building walls, the fact that Trudeau took this bold humanitarian goal put [Canada] on the map," said Chris Friesen, director of settlement services at Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia.

But this year, Canada plans to take only 7,500 government-assisted refugees - less than half last year's number. People eager to sponsor refugees find themselves waiting years to do so.

Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, are demanding Canada abandon the Safe Third Country Agreement that requires people to apply for asylum in the first of the two countries they arrive in.

However, the government is standing by the agreement, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told Canada's House of Commons last week.

Canadian Council for Refugees executive director Janet Dench said if the government refuses to act, her group will sue.

"We are talking about people's charter rights...so, yes, we would expect to see something in the courts," she said.


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The Guardian(London)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 7:00 PM GMT 


'Non-people', the bounds of humanity, and one person's story of survival;
In another era this refugee - with his work ethic, his skills, his excellent English and his bravery - would have made Australia proud


BYLINE: Richard Ackland


SECTION: OPINION


LENGTH: 1928 words


Lunch with an Iraqi refugee at a Balmain pub provides much food for thought. His story is all the more telling at a time when the world has closed in on tens of millions of refugees and Australia's treatment of them has become a subject of international disgrace.

One person's story of survival at the hands of our wretched refugee policy might prove instructive. Let's call him "H" because our chat was on a no-names basis and the anonymity seems fitting in circumstances where the state prefers refugees to be non-people. Immigration officials had given our Iraqi the distinct impression that he might lose his temporary protection visa if he was blabbing to the media.

H ordered spaghetti and mushrooms because he wasn't sure that the hamburger meat was slaughtered according to halal conditions. Pauline Hanson's advice was sorely needed at this point.  

Related: Religious groups could have Australian visas cancelled under proposed powers for Dutton

H's temporary protection visa lasts for three years and expires in 2019. He doesn't know what happens after that. He can't get permanent residency because he arrived here in 2012 when the Gillard government was in the process of tightening refugee policy. He does, however, have Australian work rights, although jobs are elusive. He also tried unsuccessfully to get a safe haven enterprise visa that requires finding work in a regional area. He tried Nowra and Orange but couldn't land a job.

Needless to say, these arrangements create an immense amount of uncertainty and anxiety, with government support minimal or completely wanting - such is the bureaucratic sterility with which Australia engages - in denial of its obligations of refugee protection.

He's in his early 40s, speaks English clearly, having had his basic high school grounding improved while he was a member of the Iraqi army working for the ministry of defence in the Green Zone's joint operations centre in Baghdad. His last job in Iraq was as a colonel in the international joint operations centre handling personnel administration, records and payroll.

He has also worked in IT and, before the military, had a computer repair business in Baghdad.

It was his army service that caused his life to unravel because, like many Shia soldiers and officers, particularly those working in the Green Zone, he was targeted by what was then al-Qaida.

They wanted him as an informant and, when he resisted this invitation, he says his car was ambushed by gunmen one evening on the way home. He says it was only the will of God that he escaped the shower of bullets. He fled to stay with a relative in northern Iraq yet still wasn't safe. "If you work for the government, al-Qaida or Isis will target you."

With this threat hanging over his life he fled the army and technically has been awol ever since.

It sounds odd, but he visited a travel agent in the city of Erbil and was advised that Australia was the place to go - it was a big, empty country looking for cheap labour.

That was 2012, when our refugee policy was tightening up with the introduction of the no advantage rule recommended by the expert panel on asylum seekers. Certainly, the Australian government at that stage was not informing refugee organisations or travel agents in war-troubled countries that we were not looking for cheap labour.

It had never occurred to H to consider Australia as a place of safety. In fact, were it not for the likelihood that he could be killed, he did not want to leave his family in Iraq at all. He's now in the position that should be return home he faces jail for fleeing the army, or worse - he may find himself at the hands of militants.

European countries are now saying it is safe for refugees to return to Iraq and that could well play into minister Dutton's hands when reviewing TPVs when they expire. This strikes a bitter chord with H - any suggestion that Iraq is safe for him is a delusion. It is not uncommon for Shia officers from the Green Zone to be shot in the street.

The travel agent procured for him an Indonesian visa for the princely sum of US$2,000, whereupon he flew to Jakarta and he quickly learned of a place in the city that served as a sort of transit home for people from Lebanon, Iran and Iraq.

"You can do anything in Indonesia, if you have money. Money is the law," he told me while he fiddled with his rapidly cooling spaghetti. People smugglers were everywhere and the comforting message they spread was that Australia is a place of safety and the government would look after refugees. 

H says he knows dozens of people smugglers in Jakarta and would be quite willing to help the Australian federal police identify them, if this were a practical possibility.

For US$7,000 he was put on a ridiculously overcrowded and unsafe boat, helpfully driven to the departure dock by people in police uniforms. The sea travel time was estimated to be 36 hours, or one and a half days, to get to an outlying Australian territory.

Instead, the GPS didn't work and four days later they were picked up in a shocking condition by an Australian navy vessel and told that they were actually heading towards Africa.

All the time H had fixed in his mind - "I'll be safe in Australia, they are good people, it is a big country, I will be welcome". He didn't reckon on the poor quality of our politicians, devoid of moral fortitude and initiative.

He was three weeks on Christmas Island and then spent four months in Curtin immigration reception centre in the Kimberley. "It was like a jail, with electric fences." Actually, he was fortunate to be there, because while on Christmas Island in 2012 quite suddenly a group of detainees was divided into two groups - some were given black bags, the others red bags.

He believed his destination might be Nauru or Manus Island, but a female officer told him not to worry since he had been given a black bag, which meant his destination was Curtin. At the time this seemed an arbitrary determination.

Conceivably, those who were sent to the island gulags are still there with their red bags, regardless of their refugee status.

Ultimately, H's refugee status was established and he waited for a visa in the western suburbs of Sydney, where a church group helped him resettle and where there was "no racism, no discrimination". A happy outpost of Christian-Shia enlightenment.

H has worked at various organisations that assist refugees such as the House of Welcome and Parliament on King.

He has undertaken voluntary training in Australia as an electrician and an aluminium window installer. He had a job driving trucks, for which he is vastly overqualified, until he was admitted to hospital with a soft tissue sarcoma behind his liver. He was operated on at Nepean hospital, which he regards as a wonderful, caring facility. "No discrimination, everyone is treated equally."

At the moment he's living in a room in a shared house about 25km from the centre of Sydney.

Australians and refugees have a complicated relationship, and the knee-jerk response of politicians is generally pretty primitive.

For instance, in September last year Essential Research reported that 49% of respondents supported a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia, while 40% were opposed to a ban.

The Morgan poll a month later contradicted those findings, with support for Muslim immigration at 58% compared with 33% against. Those in favour of asylum seeker immigration was even higher, at 66% with 25% opposed.

Morgan's surveys from 2010 onwards all showed majority support for Muslims, refugees and others immigrating to Australia.

Shortly before the last federal election the ABC's Vote Compass showed support for an end to offshore processing at 48%, against 40% in favour of Manus and Nauru.

H's response to some of these concerns among Australians is illuminating. He agrees that Australia can't have an open, self-selecting immigration program. There's even an overtone of Trump-Dutton here: "Some immigrants are bad and are hostile to the west - the government needs to try and keep everyone safe."

Nonetheless, most refugees who arrive by boat have been fed the line that Australia does have an open-door refugee policy. It only in recent times that the government has sought to counter that with ungainly video messages from jut-jawed immigration ministers and crypto-military messages that the door is closed. These have been relayed in source countries and in our Pacific gulags.

There's also an underlying Australian belief that people posing as political refugees are actually economic refugees, which should disentitle them to access to the land of opportunity. This sits uncomfortably with the fact that Australia's development and success is a tribute to the economic refugees who have come here in successive waves for generations.

H confirms that among the refugees he has met many are fleeing difficult economic circumstances for a better future. The line between economics and political persecution is not always clear.

What about refugees who don't work and live off Australian welfare? This is an image reinforced by shock jocks and parts of the press. This month the Daily Telegraph told us that " Middle Eastern migrants are piling onto the dole queue - with a 33% jobless rate during their first five years in Australia".

This jobless rate, apparently, is six times higher than the national average. The article was accompanied by a photo of a Muslim woman in a headscarf outside a Centrelink office.

Further down in the story there was a quote from the Australian National University economist Bob Gregory that most Middle East migrants were refugees and language skills are crucial to finding work.

H's English is excellent yet at the moment he is jobless, largely because of Australian requirements for skills certification and licensing.

Related: The Australia government is playing Russian roulette with women's lives | Katie Robertson

He is on a Centrelink sickness benefit during the post-operative period for his cancer. But it's shortsighted to begrudge refugees access to some form of government assistance at the early stage of their settlement in the country, if that helps then become part of the productive life of Australia.

Lastly, I put it to him that the Gulf states generally have a closed-door policy to refugees from the region, so why shouldn't Australia? Peter Dutton would be proud of me.

H's response couldn't be more to the point: "Why would you want to be like the Gulf states? Their policies are outside the normal bounds of humanity. There should be better mercy in Australia."

So here we are, with the west generally hostile to Muslim refugees. Despite the legal and constitutional problems with President Trump's edict about Muslim entry, his executive order is still strongly supported in the US. Most of western Europe is also running scared from the wave of humans fleeing for their lives.

And Australia, which played its unmeritorious role in Iraq and the destabilisation of the region, now with a policy of open hostility to resettlement of boat arrivals with refugee status.

It's not as though Australia is the complete answer to every refugee's dreams. In H's case he would like nothing better than to be able to return home, safely.

He thinks it's important to speak up, to put a human face on the bureaucratic efforts to convert refugees into " non-persons ".

In a saner era someone like H, with his excellent English, his skills, his modesty, his work ethic, his bravery, would have made a proud citizen of this country, rather than a man drifting in a void.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 3:14 PM GMT 


The idiot economics of Donald Trump's 'Muslim ban' will hit his own people in the wallet;
The fact that those who had been granted green cards (permanent residence) were initially included in the ban will have sent a chill through any non-American worker, regardless of nationality or religion


BYLINE: Ben Chu


SECTION: VOICES


LENGTH: 630 words


A moral disgrace. An act of wanton cruelty. A legal outrage. An unconstitutional power grab. A work of gross administrative incompetence. A self-inflicted security wound. But economic idiocy too?

It seems almost otiose to mention money in the context of Trump's arbitrary executive order barring Syrian refugees from America, capping the overall refugee intake for 2017 at 50,000 and stopping all entry to nationals from seven countries from the Muslim world.

But it's true. Trump's order not only defiles America's founding principles, sullies its global reputation and gives comfort to autocrats the world over, but it will, in all likelihood, ultimately lead to the diminishment of the vigour of the world's dominant economy too. 

One doesn't need to look far in America for examples of refugees and their families who have made a stunning contribution to the country's prosperity. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was the son of a Syrian refugee. Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, was a refugee from the Soviet Union.

Donald Trump announces a ban on refugees and all visitors from Muslim-majority countries

But the economic case for being open to refugees does not merely rest on a handful of entrepreneurial superstars. The idea that these people seeking sanctuary in other states represent an endless burden on taxpayers - something we've heard so often in Europe in recent years - is nonsense.

Data from Europe shows that, over time, the employment rate of refugees rises from 25 per cent to more than 60 per cent. In Sweden asylum seekers have shown a bigger increase in employment rates than from any other migrant group.

Trump's apologists stress that the ban is only temporary and point out that America in the Obama years only admitted an average of 70,000 refugees a year. It's certainly true that America has not been pulling its weight when it comes to responding to the global refugee emergency.

But this is really to miss the point.

The economic damage from Trump's order goes far wider than its direct impact. The bulk of the harm is in the message it sends. The barely disguised discrimination against Muslims tells 1.6 bn followers of that faith that "America does not want you". And the fact that those who had been granted green cards (permanent residence) were initially included in the ban will have sent a chill through any non-American worker, regardless of nationality or religion. The message here is: you can no longer rely on the US government to respect your status, to treat you fairly.

Many informed observers suspect this anti-immigrant signal is the real goal. And listening to the views of Steve Bannon, Trump's "chief strategist" and reportedly the driving force behind the executive order, this seems all too plausible. Bannon has ranted in the past about US engineering schools being "full of people from South Asia and East Asia" and objected to the number of Asian Silicon Valley chief executives. "Twenty per cent of this country is immigrants. Is that not the beating heart of this problem?" he once asked.

This is no finessing this. What we have here from the mouth of Trump's right hand man is the raw voice of nativist bigotry.

It is also the voice of economic folly. America is a republic founded by immigrants and whose spectacular economic success is built upon successive waves of mass immigration from people from all over the world of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. It has thrived on the back of immigrants' inventive talents and hard work.

This executive order is likely to be just the beginning. It sets the ugly and profoundly un-American tone. The longer Trump and Bannon control immigration policy in the US, the greater the damage that we can expect to be inflicted on the most productive national economy the planet has ever seen.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 14, 2017 Saturday 5:30 PM GMT 


Our responsibility for refugees should not be forgotten;
Even after Brexit, the UK cannot insulate itself from the obligations to help dealwith Europe's refugee crisis


BYLINE: Editorial


SECTION: EDITORIALS


LENGTH: 547 words


Europe's refugee crisis may have been forgotten as winter has closed in, but it has not ended. People are still dying as they try to cross the Mediterranean, and those in France trying to reach Britain are still suffering. 

Although the cold has made it harder and even more dangerous to attempt the crossing from north Africa, the numbers attempting it appear not to have fallen greatly.

More than 100 refugees drowned when a boat sank, as we reporttoday. On Friday 550 refugees were rescued by the Italian coastguard, when two died in the crush on the boats and four more were drowned.

This should suggest that those attempting the crossing are mostly not economic migrants, but desperate people fleeing conflict or persecution. Most of them know the risks and yet are still prepared to run them.

The Prime Minister is right, therefore, to continue the policy of her predecessor in emphasising the importance of dealing with the problem at source. The problem is that the British and other European governments have been impotent in resolving the conflict in Syria, and so the British government's policy has been heavily weighted towards providing help to refugees in camps in neighbouring countries: Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.

Video shows poor standard of living for refugees in France

This is undoubtedly worthwhile, but it is impossible to escape the suspicion that it is partly an attempt to distract attention from Britain's absence of compassion towards refugees once they have made it to Europe. Theresa May has continued to insist, as Mr Cameron did, that it is better to help refugees in their own region. Slow progress has been made towards fulfilling the previous Prime Minister's promise of settling 20,000 Syrian refugees in Britain by 2020. So far only about 3,000 have been resettled.

Meanwhile other European countries have accepted their responsibilities. The Italian authorities do most of the work of preventing more people from drowning in the Mediterranean, and Germany has taken more than its fair share of the refugees who have survived.

Not only are people dying in large numbers in unsafe boats in the unusually cold Mediterranean, but refugees trying to reach Britain are suffering in France. The Calais camp may have been broken up, but many people are still trying to get here, many of them hoping to reach friends and family here, some of them children. They are in accommodation centres elsewhere in France, or sleeping rough. Our joint responsibility for them, shared with the French government, has not ended with the clearance of the so-called Jungle at Calais.

One of the largely unspoken motives behind the British vote to leave the European Union may have been an attempt to insulate this country from the pressures of the refugee crisis affecting most of Europe.

The Independent

did not share this view. Not only is the UK relatively insulated anyway, by geography and by national control of asylum policy, but we ought to assume more of the responsibility for dealing with the crisis, because ultimately our interests cannot be separated from those of our continental partners.

Even when Britain has left the EU, we will be a member of the European family of nations, and we ought to assume our share of the responsibilities that go with that.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 22, 2017 Wednesday 1:39 PM GMT 


Donald Trump voter used to hate Muslims - when they became his neighbours, everything changed;
Nebraska is home to more refugees per capita than any other US state


BYLINE: Andrew Buncombe


SECTION: AMERICAS; Version:2


LENGTH: 1122 words


By his own admission, John Dutcher never had any time for "Muslims".

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, his anger grew. When he saw a Muslim couple in the supermarket, he would snarl to himself, especially if the woman's head was covered. There was even a time when he considered placing strips of bacon outside a local mosque, though he never did so.

And then something happened - something both very simple, and quite remarkable: a family of refugees moved in next door, and a process of transformation began.

Mr  

Dutcher

said he had been praying for change in his life (

KETV

)

"There were two families that moved in across the hall from me. I'd seen them arrive," said Mr Dutcher, speaking from Omaha, Nebraska's largest city. "I said to the people they were with, if there was anything I could do to help, with the apartment or whatever, then they should just ask."

A year on, at a time when the US is reeling from the impact of Donald Trump's travel ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and his suspension of the country's refugee programme, Mr Dutcher, who voted for Mr Trump, has emerged as a voice of understanding and hope. When an interview he did with local television channel

KETV

went viral, many across the country were inspired by both his words and example.

Activists wondered that if a man who had held such strident, Islamophobic views could be turned around simply by meeting people he had previously simply given a label, what message might it carry for others.

"It's not in our human nature to go up to someone who does not look like you," said Lacey Studnicka, a development officer with the Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS), who has worked with refugees for 15 years.

Protesters gathered in the aftermath of Mr Trump's executive order banning travel for people from seven Muslim-majority countries (AP)

She said she believed the key to changing people's minds was education. Part of her work involves travelling across Nebraska and giving talks in churches and community centres, sometimes with a former member of the refugee community. She said it was especially useful to visit rural areas.

"Even if nobody in your community is a refugee, if you are able to hear the stories of someone, a little piece opens up," she said.

Nebraska is flat, conservative, largely rural and overwhelmingly white. In the 2016 presidential election it voted 58-33 in favour Mr Trump. The New York tycoon secured 85 per cent of the vote in 19 of the state's 93 counties. In western Grant County, of which the county seat is Hyannis, 93 per cent of people voted for him. The state's entire population is around 1.9m.

Yet Nebraska has also proved very welcoming to refugees. Between October 2015 and September 2016, the so-called Cornhusker state welcomed 1,441 refugees, or 76 per 100,000 Nebraskans, according to a Pew Research Centre analysis. Per capita, Nebraska took more refugees than any other state, ahead of North Dakota, Idaho, Vermont and Arizona.

How do the town where 93 per cent voted for Trump think he's doing after one month?

Officials say the state is a popular destination for refugees because the economy is strong, and there are jobs in the hospitality, meat-packing and services industries. More than 90 per cent of refugees coming to the state, are doing so to reunite with family members already there.

Anwar Rida, who lives in Lincoln, moved to Nebraska in 1999. He is originally from Iraq, and said that while Nebraska was a welcoming state for refugees, it was important for new arrivals to make an effort to become part of the community. His company offers free English classes to new arrivals, something he says is vital.

"Nebraska is a lovely state, a nice environment. There are nice people, it's good for families," he said.

Last month, ten state politicians sponsored a resolution saying they "believe in protecting refugees" regardless of religion, a response to Mr Trump executive order that many believe targeted Muslims and assigned priority status to Christians.

Graphiq

"Many refugees have earned green cards and call this country home, and others have been shown, through extensive vetting, to bear good will toward our nation," said resolution LR27. "Refugees include people fleeing war and oppression and include children and families in need of safety."

Yet, things are not that simple. The state's governor Pete Ricketts, a Republican, has defended Mr Trump's ban, calling Nebraska a "welcoming state" but disagreeing with the judge who ordered a stay on the president's order.

"I don't know why anybody in a foreign country would have any expectation they should be able to have a right to come to our country," he told reporters. "That's just nonsensical. That, if you're a foreign national you should have no expectation you should be able to come to the United States."

Meanwhile, two Nebraska refugee resettlement agencies are cutting jobs in the wake of Mr Trump's executive order on immigration. LFS said last week it was cutting 15 positions while the Refugee Empowerment Centre is losing three positions - decisions that were taken in anticipation of a drop in refugee arrivals.

grantcounty6.jpg, by

Andrew Buncombe

Mr Dutcher said that while he supported Mr Trump's wish to tighten the US-Mexico border, he said he was frustrated that too many confused refugees from countries such as Syria and Iraq, with the general debate on immigration.

The 61-year-old, who works for a commercial cleaning company, said his own transformation had come after many hours of prayer. He said he had been attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and that "there was a lot of change in my life that needed to be done".

He said the more he spoke with his new neighbours - sometimes making use of Google Translate - so he came to learn more of the journeys they had taken to reach Omaha. "As I found out more about them, they invited me into their homes. Some of these people came from Aleppo," he said, referring to Syria's devastated largest city.

He said the people whose apartments his new neighbours occupied had been meth addicts and drank heavily. Very quickly, the empty bottles and late night arguments, were replaced by the clutter of children who called him "big brother".

Read more

Trump deportation plan 'must be stopped', Schumer says

Trump's new travel ban 'will have same outcome as old one'

Mexico fears US will begin building border deportation camps

"If I had stayed in my comfort zone and had not reached out, I would never have changed. I would have stayed in that hateful mode," he said.

"I was seeking change in my life. I give the credit to God. He listened to me and answered my prayers."


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The Guardian(London)


June 23, 2017 Friday 11:00 AM GMT 


This refugee squat represents the best and worst of humanity;
The derelict City Plaza hotel in Athens was taken over by activists in 2016. Since then, it has housed refugees without a cent of government funding


BYLINE: Molly Crabapple


SECTION: OPINION; Version:1


LENGTH: 862 words


On April 26, 2016, the same month the EU-Turkey deal trapped 60,000 refugees in Greece, migrant solidarity activists broke the locks on City Plaza, a shuttered hotel in Athens' anarchist Exarchia neighborhood, and gave 400 stranded people a home. Over the next year, City Plaza grew into the best known of over a dozen squats that house refugees in Greece's crisis ravaged capital. It has been covered by Time, Al Jazeera, The New York Times. Volunteers pass through from all over Europe.

City Plaza boasts a clinic, a delicious cafeteria, language classes, a café. Families live in private rooms. Some have jobs. Their kids attend Greek schools. Most of the work to maintain City Plaza is done, and decisions made, by its residents, who hail from a dozen countries and abide by a behavior code that has zero tolerance for sexism, racism or abuse.  

When I visited City Plaza last November, its rooms sang with activity - activists painted a protest banner, a Spanish hippie taught a kid chess, women held a group therapy session, a young man from Aleppo prepared traditional Arab coffee behind the bar. "Life is very beautiful [there]," Mahmoud, a 21-year-old photographer from Baghdad who has been living at City Plaza for three months, told me over Whatsapp recently. Around 4,000 refugees are waiting for places in the squat.

But despite everything it has accomplished, City Plaza is under threat. Though the hotel had been closed since 2010, its owner, heiress Aliki Papachela, spent the last year attempting to evict the refugees - even going so far as to sue the Greek Chief of Police for "dereliction of duty" because he had not shut down the squat.

Her efforts finally has delivered results. On 17 May, the Athens Prosecutor's Office ordered three refugee squats evicted - City Plaza among them. The squats only learned about the orders weeks later, when articles ran in the Greek press.

These are no idle threats. Right-wing Greek press and politicians have long demonized squatters, and in March, police raided two other squats. A Syrian woman who experienced one of these raids told me about police who kicked in the door at 4am, detained her for 11 hours, and left her and a hundred other refugees homeless. They were not even allowed to collect their clothes. "The threat [of eviction] endangers the lives of many people, including women and children, who have no place to sleep," Mahmoud said.

Refugee squats are fighting back. Since the threat, they have launched petitions and called for a citywide demonstration on 23 June. Solidarity protests sprung up around Europe - many involving refugees who once called City Plaza home.

Refugee and volunteer-run squats provide a stark alternative to Greece's government run camps, most of which are squalid, dangerous and degrading. In camps that I visited last November, refugees slept on concrete, sheltered only by cheap nylon tents. They queued for hours for food that might be infested with maggots, and had little access to education, work, or respite from the endless, pointless wait to continue their lives.

Squats like City Plaza accomplish their work without a cent of government or NGO funding. In contrast, despite the $803m euros that since 2015 have flowed to the Greek government and NGOs to help them deal with the refugee crisis, refugees froze to death in camps last winter. Desperate, several more have tried to burn themselves alive. Even the best camps isolate refugees from cities, keeping them quarantined like carriers of a disease.

Perhaps the squats' real crime is breaking this barrier, and bringing refugees from the urban periphery to its heart. City Plaza is just one prominent member of a network of squats, festivals, social centers, bars, solidarity kitchens and community assemblies that form the multi-ethnic, politically radical fabric of several Athens neighborhoods. Walk through the streets of Exarchia and you'll see walls scrawled with the vocabulary of Anti-Authoritarianism, in Arabic and English, Pashto and Greek.

You'll find ads for queer Syrian dance parties, Dari protest flyers, Arabic newspapers filled with Mahmoud Darwish poetry and skepticism towards the nation-state. Step into a bar and you will meet people speaking 15 languages, many of them poor, many of them undocumented, many of them in trauma, but still living together, in one vision of a post-borders future.

In a world that is ever more interconnected, ever more vulnerable to climate change, war and economic rupture, 2015's mass refugee migration is a warning of things to come. More people will take to the road, and we must find ways to live together, whatever passports we may hold. Squats like City Plaza show one direction we might take.

"As long as they try to evict the squats, as long as they build camps and detention centers, as long as there are borders - we will also be there to fight back and fight for a better world!" the Coordination of Refugee Squats wrote in a post on City Plaza's Facebook. "We will show them again what we already proved, we live together, we struggle and we resist together - to defend the dignity of each individual, to defend our principles of solidarity."


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The Guardian(London)


May 23, 2017 Tuesday 2:03 AM GMT 


Two Coalition MPs join Tim Watts in call for more private sponsorship of refugees;
National party MP Andrew Broad and Liberal Russell Broadbent support Labor party MP's 'clarion call for compassion'


BYLINE: Katharine Murphy Political editor


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 647 words


Two government MPs have supported a motion from Victorian Labor MP Tim Watts arguing for increased private sponsorship of refugees to increase Australia's resettlement intake.

In a week when the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, branded some asylum seekers "fake" refugees and warned the so-called "legacy caseload" of about 7,500 people to formally apply for protection by 1 October or face deportation, the two MPs took the opportunity of a parliamentary debate to send a much more welcoming message.

Watts has brought forward a motion which calls on Australian governments, businesses and community organisations to explore ways to use private sponsorship to expand the resettlement of refugees through formal channels. 

Victorian National party MP Andrew Broad seconded the Watts motion, telling parliament lived experience in his electorate of Mallee suggested sponsored refugees not only boosted economic activity but were also good for the soul of communities.

"I really think this needs a push along," Broad said.

He said he had recently read a book about the origins of the Holocaust and the history had brought home to him the requirement for political leaders to deal properly with refugees and "take their population on the journey".

Related: 'Before I came here I was scared': Karen refugees find a haven in Victoria

Broad said in the community of Nhill, in western Victoria, a sponsored refugee program had "not only brought a labour force into the town, it's changed the culture of the town, it's opened the hearts of the people in the town".

"It has actually worked," Broad told parliament.

"And so what I say to people when they are a little bit apprehensive about Australia taking more refugees, it's really about what are the services we are going to provide, what communities are we going to put in and how are we going to integrate people into our community.

"These are beautiful people.

"I am so proud of humble country folk who are being part of the solution. We can do this, we can replicate this in many towns across Australia and it will bring so much good."

Another government MP, the Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent, also spoke in support of the motion.

He said pilot programs supporting refugees moving to particular communities were fine but they lacked scale. Broadbent said more people went through the pie stand at the MCG in 20 minutes than participated in pilot programs.

Broadbent, a prominent party moderate who has argued for humane asylum policies, said fairness was in the DNA of Australians "but we don't carry it through internationally in the way I believe we should".

"And I can't stand here and say 'I can't say this because my party will be upset with me', because this is about relationships."

Broadbent told parliament Australia was not in a position to take the multitudes of people wanting to come as refugees, but where a community wanted to sponsor families or individuals "we can make it easier for them to do that".

"What [Tim Watts] has put out is a clarion call for compassion, conscience and common sense."

Watts, a Victorian Labor MP, told parliament the current refugee crisis was the defining humanitarian issue of our time "and a challenge Australia has all too often failed to rise to".

He said while Australia's refugee debate was toxic, there were points of potential consensus between political parties. "I believe we can build out from these areas of consensus to increase the positive impact Australia can have on the international refugee crisis."

Watts said community or private sponsorship allowed the costs of resettlement to be borne by communities, rather than the commonwealth.

He said Canada's private program had settled more than 200,000 refugees since 1978 beyond the formal government humanitarian program.

"Perhaps the Australian community can do a better job at this task than those of us in the parliament," Watts said.


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telegraph.co.uk


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 5:41 PM GMT 


Refugees respond to tweets about Trump's travel ban  


BYLINE: By Adam Boult


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 567 words


Refugees in camps in Lebanon and Kenya are appearing in video messages responding tweets about the on-going refugee crisis, as part of a campaign organised by Amnesty International.

Amnesty workers stationed at refugee camps this week are working with the camps' inhabitants to record and post individual video messages responding to selected Twitter messages. 

Each video message thanks the tweeter for their support - while urging them to sign an Amnesty petition  calling on the UN and world governments to do more to tackle the refugee crisis.

<table>

Hi @PristineSshi, Amina from Kenya's Kakuma camp has just replied to your earlier tweet #TakeActionhttps://t.co/QvampXtYXi@realDonaldTrumppic.twitter.com/e5D6Cua7b9

- AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) February 1, 2017

"Without action, the global refugee crisis, particularly the poor conditions faced by refugees, can only get worse," said Osama Saeed Bhutta, Communications Director at Amnesty International. "But it can be solved. It will take genuine leadership and political will.

"That's why we're calling on everyone to take action and help us pressure governments around the world to do the same. This is a global crisis that requires a global response.

<table>

Hi @CarlottaGreatho, we do care for all. Samer from Lebanon's Shatila camp has replied to your tweet #TakeActionhttps://t.co/oDyt9xrFJqpic.twitter.com/RNKR4Hbps0

- AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) February 1, 2017

"The problem is not the number of refugees but that far too few nations are sharing responsibility for supporting refugees. And it is the wealthiest nations that do least."

Salil Shetty, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, said this week: "With Friday's Executive Order on 'protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals,' President Donald J. Trump has declared war on Muslim refugees around the world.

<table>

Hey @sarabashiri, yes you're right. Abu from Kenya's Kakuma camp has just replied to your earlier tweet #TakeActionhttps://t.co/8DnIyfoSaOpic.twitter.com/5QYC4WseDO

- AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) February 1, 2017

"There is no data to support the view that refugees - Muslim or otherwise - pose more risk of committing acts of terrorism than citizens.

"The Executive Order is preposterous in its irrationality. But no one should be laughing about it. This is a deeply frightening document. Faced with a global emergency in which 21 million people have been forced to flee their homes, one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries on earth responds by obliterating one of their only avenues for hope: 'resettlement.' 

"In sum, this Executive Order abandons host countries and punishes the most vulnerable among an already vulnerable group."

Watch | Donald Trump's travel ban explained - in 90 seconds 01:33


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 9:54 PM GMT 


Theresa May 'does not agree' with Trump's Muslim ban and is looking into 'consequences' for Brits;
The Prime Minister issued a statement in the early hours of Sunday after repeatedly dodging questions on her view


BYLINE: By Andrew Woodcock


SECTION: NEWS,UK NEWS


LENGTH: 1142 words


Theresa May "does not agree" with Donald Trump's ban on migrants and refugees from Muslim countries, her spokesman said.

The Prime Minister had come under pressure to condemn the President's move to bar refugees from entering the US.

Mrs May repeatedly dodged the questions when asked for her view on the policy during a press conference in Turkey.

But as the hours that followed, her position became increasingly isolated as Europeans leaders, the opposition and members of her own party criticised her position.

It also emerged a number of British citizens will be affected by the ban. 

Among them could be Olympic hero Sir Mo Farah who has dual Somali-British citizenship.

In a statement issued in the early hours of Sunday, a spokesman for No 10 said: "Immigration policy in the United States is a matter for the government of the United States, just the same as immigration policy for this country should be set by our government.

"But we do not agree with this kind of approach and it is not one we will be taking.

"We are studying this new executive order to see what it means and what the legal effects are, and in particular what the consequences are for UK nationals.

"If there is any impact on UK nationals then clearly we will make representations to the US government about that."

Mrs May finds herself in an uncomfortable position - having spoken glowingly of the UK's 'special relationship' with America and was pictured holding hands with Trump during her recent visit.

But later, when pressed by reporters at the event in Ankara, Turkey, she insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy on refugees.

Her Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim, however, hit out at the ban, warning the US that building a wall would not solve the crisis.

Speaking at the joint conference,Mrs Maytold reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States policy on refugees."

She added: "The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

The PM was immediately condemned by British politicians, including Labour leaderJeremy Corbynand former leader Ed Miliband.

Donald Trump's Muslim ban: All you need to know about what US President's controversial announcement actually means

Mr Trump, who was inaugurated as the 45th US President on January 20, has barred all refugees from entering the country for four months.

However, he has blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

Prime Minister Theresa May and Turkish President Erdogan sit for lunch with officials

His order, signed on Friday afternoon, also imposes a 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations.

When asked about the changes made by the president at today's press conference, Mrs May focused on the action taken by the UK to help refugees.

Pressed a second time, the PM - who held talks with Mr Trump and was even pictured holding his hand in Washington on Friday - failed to answer.

US Vice President Mike Pence called Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'offensive and unconstitutional' just one year ago

She finally addressed the question when reporters shouted out "what about the US?"

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was among those who attacked Mrs May for refusing to condemn Mr Trump's refugee ban.

He said: "Theresa May has failed to criticise President Trump for turning away and banning refugees whose only crime is to believe in a different religion.

"Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand.

"The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on.

"Perhaps she feels in a weak position on Syrian refugees because her own record on this is so lamentable.

"We're taking names": Donald Trump's new UN ambassador warns US allies "back us or else"

"More likely it is because she is so desperate for a trade deal at any price after her decision to haul Britain out of the world's largest market that she will turn a blind eye to anything.

"At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal.

" They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way.

Refugees Miliband

Refugees Sayeeda Warsi

"If Theresa May would stay in the single market none of this humiliation would be necessary."

Mr Corbyn said the Prime Minister should have stood up for British values and condemned Mr Trump's actions.

He said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

Muslim travellers turned away from US after Donald Trump's ban as Google 'recalls overseas staff'

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

Mr Miliband, meanwhile, took to Twitter to express his shock.

He wrote: "PM's refusal to condemn Trump Muslim ban is shocking, wrong and cannot stand. It flies in the face of the values of people across Britain."

Former Tory Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi also tweeted her views, writing: "The moment we once again lost a little more moral authority.

"The hypocrisy of the debate on #Britishvalues becomes more stark by the day."

And Labour MP Yvette Cooper has written to the Prime Minister, calling for her to say if she raised concerns about Mr Trump's declarations about refugees during their talks, which took place on Holocaust Memorial Day.

She wrote: "I am writing to ask ... whether you or your Government have raised concern about the President's approach to refugees or to Muslims, and whether you or your ministers will now urge him to reconsider his position.

British PM Theresa May signs £100m fighter jets deal with Turkish President Erdogan during post-Brexit trade mission

"You will understand how important it is for people in the United Kingdom to know that when our Prime Minister talks on Holocaust Memorial Day about things we have in common with the President of the United States, you are not talking about or condoning in any way the deeply troubling measures that President Trump has introduced."

During her visit to Ankara, Mrs May called Turkey one of Britain's oldest friends.

Speaking to reporters at the presidential palace alongside President Tayyip Erdogan, she also signed a $125million (£100million) fighter jet deal with the country.


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MailOnline


May 24, 2017 Wednesday 2:49 PM GMT 


More than six million refugees are waiting in North Africa, Jordan, and Turkey to travel to Europe, according to a confidential German security paper


BYLINE: JAY AKBAR FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS; Version:4


LENGTH: 690 words



Around 6.6million refugees in North Africa, Jordan and Turkey are waiting to come to Europe, according to a classified German security report. 

The paper, seen by Bild, suggests the number of people looking for sanctuary in EU nations has risen 12 per cent since January, when 5.9million were looking to flee.

The vast majority of refugees and migrants looking for a new life in Europe, some 3.3million, are currently living in refugee camps in Turkey. 

Another one million are in Egypt and Libya, where thousands pay smugglers to sneak them across the Mediterranean on rickety boats which often capsize.

As many as 62,5000 are said to be stranded in Greece and another 37,300 in Italy, which the report claims is currently the most affected by boat landings.

It state that the majority of refugees and migrants to land on Italy's shores by the end of April were from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and the Gambia.

Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party will respond to the migrant crisis by tackling the reasons why these people are leaving, the report claims.

The document says migrants who are 'rescued from drowning, by tugboats' would be taken back to the coast they fled where they will be provided with food, shelter and 'consultation'.

Only today, 30 migrants including young children drowned after falling off an overloaded vessel in the Mediterranean, where tensions between aid ships and Libyan coast guard are rising

'There's a critical situation today. About 200 people fell into the water,' said a coastguard while a humanitarian worker at the scene said 31 bodies had been recovered.

REFUGEES BY COUNTRY

The confidential paper listed the following country-by-country statistics as to where refugees looking to enter Europe were based:

- Up to 3.3million refugees in Turkey (up from 2.9 million in January 2017)

- Up to one million in Egypt (up from 500 000)

- Up to one million in Libya (down from 1.2million)

- Up to 720,000 in Jordan (up from 710 000)

- Up to 430,000 in Algeria (up from 400,000); 

- Up to 160,000 in Tunisia (up from 150,000);

- Up to 50,000 in Morocco (down from 60,000) 

The migrants were on a wooden boat carrying between 500 and 700 people and were just 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast when the accident happened.  

Meanwhile efforts are underway to remove hundreds of refugees from an unhygienic makeshift camp at an ex-Olympics facility in greater Athens, a migration ministry source said Tuesday.

'We are down there today to register the refugees' needs and officially inform them that they should relocate to organised camps,' the source said this week.

Some 700 mainly Afghan refugees are living at the camp at Hellinikon - which until 2001 was the Athens airport - in crumbling flight lounges and abandoned sports facilities later built for the 2004 Olympics.

Rights groups have repeatedly labelled the makeshift camp on the coastal Athens front unsuitable for long-term accommodation and called on the government to find alternative arrangements for the refugees.

In February, some of the refugees went on hunger strike to protest against the lack of hot water and suitable food. 

Overall, some 60,000 people including many young Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis, have been stuck in Greece for the past year after neighbouring countries along the migrant route into Europe shut their borders.

At the start of the 2015 influx, Afghans were originally viewed as refugees and allowed to continue their journey from Greece to other countries in Europe.

But many now face deportation - despite growing insecurity that saw civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit a record high in 2016 - after a disputed deal between EU and Kabul to send migrants back.


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The National (Scotland)


June 21, 2017 Wednesday


UN fear more than 100 deaths in Mediterranean as Scots show solidarity on World Refugee Day


BYLINE: Kirsteen Paterson


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 572 words


THE UN refugee agency has expressed fears over at least 130 people dead or missing after three Mediterranean wrecks.

On World Refugee Day, UNHCR's Cecile Pouilly said yesterday that more efforts must be made to tackle dangerous ocean migration from Libya after three crafts leaving the country were wrecked within days of each other.

The first left the unstable African nation on June 15 and the Italian coast guard, which rescued four Sudanese and Nigerian nationals, believes at least 133 were on board before it began taking on water. 

The second boat, carrying at least 85, including "many families with children", split in two and sank after setting off on the same evening. Another seven people, including the husband of a pregnant woman, are understood to have been lost in the third incident, with survivors disembarked in Sicily on Monday.

Speaking in Geneva, Pouilly appealed for more rescue operations and the provision of safe alternatives for those fleeing conflict in Africa and the Middle East.

She said: "Today is World Refugee Day. These incidents are a reminder of the grave dangers that people confront when forced to flee their countries because of war and persecution.

"Since the beginning of the year, over 77,000 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. This is among the world's most dangerous routes - a journey that no one takes lightly.

"Despite the heroic work of those involved in rescue at sea, the death toll on the Mediterranean continues to rise. Close to 2000 people are reported to have died or gone missing since the start of the year."

The comments came as Scots marked World Refugee Day by forming a human chain in Glasgow city centre. The symbolic act marked the start of Refugee Festival Scotland.

The organisers of the act, Amnesty International, Oxfam Scotland and Scottish Refugee Council, hope it sends a clear message to the world that "Scotland Stands with Refugees".

Gary Christie, interim chief executive of Scottish Refugee Council, said: "We're gathered here today to show that we care about people who have been forced to flee their homes around the world. Millions of people's lives continue to be torn apart by war and terrorism and we are proud that Scotland offers a place of safety to a small number of people in need.

"We're also here to pay tribute to the courage and strength of those men, women and children who are rebuilding their lives in Scotland with the support of communities across the country."

Meanwhile, visiting refugee girls in Kenya, UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie called for extra focus on female refugees, with more than half of all displaced people worldwide being women and children.

The actress said: "How we treat them is a measure of our humanity as nations.

"On World Refugee Day, my only ask is that people consider the pain and suffering of young girls like these. Not only have they had to flee extreme violence or persecution, lost everything and witnessed the death of family members, but they have also had to face so much abuse and intolerance and hardship.

"They are doing their best ... with minimal support trying to live lives of dignity against impossible odds."

Kenya is home to almost 491,000 refugees from neighbouring countries, including 101,713 from South Sudan, which is the biggest new factor in global forced displacement after peace efforts collapsed last summer, contributing to the departure of 737,400 people by the year's end.


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FinancialWire


February 8, 2017 Wednesday


Unique EU programme to benefit refugees and host communities in Kalobeyei


LENGTH: 834 words


The Support to the Kalobeyei Integrated Social and Economic Development Programme, funded through the EU Trust Fund for Africa, will promote a new way of working, placing refugees on the development agenda and contributing to an inclusive approach

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NAIROBI, Kenya, February 8, 2017/APO/ -- The European Union, The Netherlands, UN partners and Turkana County and national government representatives have launched a ground breaking programme that aims to improve the living conditions of refugees and host communities in Turkana County.
 



The Support to the Kalobeyei Integrated Social and Economic Development Programme, funded through the EU Trust Fund for Africa, will promote a new way of working, placing refugees on the development agenda and contributing to an inclusive approach to managing protracted displacement and promoting durable solutions for refugees and host communities.

Kenya hosts an estimated 495,000 refugees, of which over 160,000 are hosted in Kakuma, Turkana County, a region Northwest of Kenya, suffering from economic and social underdevelopment. The upcoming Kalobeyei settlement area will be an attempt to better take into consideration the long-term interests of host populations, bringing together humanitarian and development efforts under the leadership of the Kenyan Government and County authorities.

The Government of Turkana County, Josephat Nanok, welcomed the support provided by the European Union saying he was glad that the projected visualised two years ago was now coming to fruition. "This being the first pilot to this initiative, we hope that it's something that can be adopted globally. We have severe drought and the reason we did not come up among the top 10 most affected counties is because of intervention programmes like this which have helped to cushion us from its adverse effects."

EU Head of Development Cooperation, Mr Erik Habers, announced that the EU support will go towards interventions that promote self-reliance, through better livelihood opportunities and enhanced service delivery, building up resilience, and seeking longer-term solutions for refugees: ""We hope to enhance protection for refugees and host communities and catalyse development in Kalobeyei settlement so that it becomes a place in which refugees and the host communities live peacefully together, have access to social services and develop economic ties to build sustainable livelihoods. Our challenge is to make this happen."

Kenya hosts an estimated 495,000 refugees, of which over 160,000 are hosted in Kakuma, Turkana County, a region Northwest of Kenya

The objective of the programme is to improve health standards for the host communities and refugees in Kalobeyei, increase food and nutrition security and promote economic opportunities, increase school enrolment for children, improve child safety and wellbeing and enhance social cohesion between refugees and host communities.

He was speaking at the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nairobi, Kenya where implementing partners, UNHCR, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the County of Turkana kicked off the Kalobeyei programme.

The EU has committed EUR15 million (Sh 1.6B) towards the programme which is part of the EU Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) in the Horn of Africa, led by the Netherlands, which has been set up to address protection and development challenges related to forced and protracted displacement and also includes projects in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ms Marielle Geraedts, stressed: "Addressing development needs of refugees and host communities at the same time will lead to more effective use of the scarce resources and will create a more sustainable system in the longer run."

The EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, under which this project is funded, was set up precisely for this purpose, with the objective of addressing the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement. This project underlines the EU's and the Netherlands' strong commitment to improving conditions for refugees, IDPs and their host communities in the Horn of Africa.

The UNHCR Representative, Mr Raouf Mazou, on behalf of all UN implementing partners involved in the project, welcomed the support provided by the EU/RDPP, aimed at moving away from dependency and investing in the economic potential of refugees and their hosts.

The UN Resident Coordinator Mr Siddharth Chatterjee said this is an approach that UN wants to be adopted by all partners. "All we need to do is use our resources to work with the national and county governments to ensure that normative disconnects are bridged to ensure sustainable development for all."

Distributed by APO on behalf of EU Delegation to Kenya.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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Scottish Express


January 29, 2017 Sunday  
Edition 1;
Scotland


Kremlin on the line... but Trump's troubles are closer to home


BYLINE: Robert James


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4


LENGTH: 539 words


DONALD Trump's historic telephone call with Vladimir Putin was overshadowed by chaos caused by the start of his new travel ban on refugees yesterday.

The US President spent around 50 minutes on the phone with the Russian leader as he attempts to cultivate a "great relationship" with Moscow, despite pressure to keep sanctions. He also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with a source saying he was looking to raise a "coalition of the willing" to help smash Islamic State. 

'You cannot However, the whirlwind tour of international diplomacy was left in the shade by the start of Mr Trump's controversial immigration crackdown. The order, signed on Friday in Washington, temporarily banned refugees from around the world from entering the US, blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely and placed severe restrictions on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.

this building It caused chaos at airports across the world yesterday, as those arriving in the US were held at immigration barriers and elsewhere others were barred from boarding planes.

The ban also applies to Britons with dual nationality in one of the affected countries - including Olympic hero Sir Mo Farah, who may now barred from travelling to his Nike training camp in Oregon.

A US State Department official said people travelling on British passports would be turned away if they were found to also have citizenship of one of Mr Trump's blacklisted countries.

Theresa May did not condemn the ban when pressed by reporters in Turkey, saying only: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees.

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable." However, other world leaders have spoken out against the move.

Mrs May's Turkish counterpart, Binali Yildirim, said the only way to tackle the refugee crisis was to deal with the reasons they were fleeing. He said: "You cannot solve this issue of refugees by putting up walls."

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: "We have signed international obligations, so welcoming refugees fleeing war and oppression forms part of oursolve issue by walls' duties."

And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Prime Minister should have condemned the travel ban. He said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all. Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions."

Another of those to fall victim to the executive order was an Iranian film director with an Oscar nomination who was told he cannot attend the ceremony. Asghar Farhadi's film The Salesman is up for Best Foreign Film.

And a legal challenge against the ban has already begun in New York. A rights group is demanding the release of two Iraqi refugees who were held at John F Kennedy airport. Lawyer Mark Doss said: "We believe this order is unconstitutional and will be fighting it."

'You cannot solve this issue by building walls'


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GRAPHIC: PHONE A FRIEND: Mr Trump called Mr Putin, top left, from the Oval Office yesterday


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 6:56 PM GMT 


What you need to know about Trump's immigration ban;
The immediate consequences have been dire for everyone including valid visa holders and legal residents, and lawsuits have already begun - but the orders' vagueness leaves much up in the air


BYLINE: Alan Yuhas


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1137 words


What has the order done?


Related: US airports on frontline as Trump immigration ban causes chaos and controversy 



What are the immediate consequences?



How have Americans reacted?



Have any Republicans broken with Trump? (Spoiler alert: no)

Related: Donald Trump's first week: carnage, both real and imagined | Tom McCarthy



What are the legal challenges to the ban?



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The Argus (Newsquest Regional Press)


June 16, 2017 Friday


Comedians unite to support refugees with special stand-up show led by Dara O'Briain


BYLINE: Josh Walton


SECTION: EVENTS


LENGTH: 813 words


DARA O'Briain will lead a line-up of some of the UK's top comedians to raise funds for refugees during a special stand-up event at the Brighton Dome.

The Stand Up For Refugees gig on Wednesday, June 21, will also include performances from Mark Steel, Shappi Khorsandi, Francesca Martinez, Bec Hill, Zoe Lyons, Kerry Godliman, Tiernan Douieb and Tom Allen.

All the money from ticket sales will go to Help Refugees, the biggest grassroots distributor of aid to those in Europe and the Middle East currently affected by the global migrant crisis. 

Comedian and co-organiser Jen Brister tells JOSH WALTON about the upcoming show.

As co-organiser of the Stand Up For Refugees series of comedy shows, what made you decide to focus on this cause?

I think, like a lot of people, I saw this issue and the refugee crisis on the news a lot and have friends who have given their time to volunteer and help the cause out in Calais and Greece. With so many heartbreaking stories I found it hard to sleep peacefully. I thought the one thing I can do is help raise a lot of money. It was going to be a one-off show before we gauged the interest and everyone came together to make it work. I went to Calais myself to see the work Help Refugees are doing. I took away from the visit just how lucky we are to live where we do and have the rights and freedoms we have.

How do you think the comedians on the line-up match the ethos of the show?

There isn't a single comedian featuring in the show who doesn't do charity work on a regular basis. We are all friends and I have asked them to come and take part for free. They believe in the charity Help Refugees and what it stands for. They have all done stuff for refugees so they were the first people I contacted.

What can guests expect from the show?

People have bought their tickets and that is the main thing. Don't think it is going to be very political and dry because of the cause we are raising funds and awareness for, because it really isn't. We want to see the best turnout and have the best night ever. People have paid a lot of money and really deserve that. There could be some mention of the refugee crisis during the show but we have not focused our content specifically on that. I have a little bit on the crisis in my own part of the show.

How would you like to see the money spent by Help Refugees?

They know exactly what they are doing at the charity. They are on the ground helping refugees all over the world. There are people who just need clothing and food because they are stuck in these places. We need to try and keep the people who are suffering in a positive mood and the charity helps to do that as well as offer legal advice and hope. They should not have to feel hopeless or as though they are stuck. So many refugee charities are out there but I chose Help Refugees because of the connections they have. They really know what needs to be done.

What has your experience of the shows you have held so far been like?

The nights really are always magical and the crowd shows so much support and love for the acts involved. This is the comedians' reward for doing the shows for free. They have been going great so far and the energy throughout is really infectious. It is also good to see how generous our guests have been.

How do you expect the Brighton audience and show to differ from the others you have played so far on the tour?

It is our final show and will be the biggest venue that we have played at. We are planning for a very big night at the Brighton Dome. All of the audiences have been incredible and everyone who gives money is definitely a decent human being. Brighton is a very liberal place and one of the best places in the country. Just know that this is going to be an amazing night. Even if we don't sell any more tickets it will still be amazing.

What impact do you think the recent general election will have on how the refugee crisis is dealt with?

The Conservatives have been very dogmatic in their approach to this humanitarian issue. People just seem to accept that what they do happens and that's it but we don't have to do that. The Tories don't have a majority. I hope we can see a change in the way the government deals with the crisis and it would be good to see an effort to reunite more children with their families.

How do you think comedy can be used as a way of raising awareness about serious social issues?

You can use comedy as an effective way of flagging up these types of issues with people so that they consider stuff themselves. If you make people laugh and it isn't preachy then it's always a good thing. It can have a huge impact and bring like-minded people together. In a way you can certainly get people to think about these issues more thoroughly. There are some comedians who manage to take a subject this tragic and approach it in a way that makes people respond to it in a different way.


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


January 20, 2017 Friday


Turkey detains dozens in human smuggling operation


LENGTH: 2045 words


Text of report in English by website of Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on 20 January

(Yeni Safak Online) - Turkish police on Friday detained as many as 27 people in the simultaneous operation in five cities aimed at cracking down on the trafficking of refugees seeking to reach the European Union. Four of them were released while the remaining are still in custody.

The operations were conducted in Izmir, Istanbul, Adana, Mersin and Mardin province.

The suspects were to provide illegal transportation to 400 refugees from Turkey's Aegean seaside town of Cesme to Italy. Each of the refugees were reported to have paid $4,000 to the smugglers. 

Disabled refugees 'overlooked' in Greece: Human Rights Watch Disabled refugees and migrants are not properly identified in Greece and have poor access to basic services such as toilets, showers, food and medical care, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday.About 60,000 refugees and migrants live in formal and makeshift camps in Greece and Human Rights Watch said conditions there were "deplorable and volatile.""People with disabilities are being overlooked in getting basic services, even though they are among the refugees and migrants most at-risk," said Shantha Rau Barriga, disability rights director at New York-based HRW.The group urged authorities to move anyone with a disability living in tents during winter to heated prefabricated homes, and said their dire situation was "a wake-up call for the UN and the EU to start taking the issue more seriously".It also called on the EU to step up its efforts and provide additional resources to austerity-hit Greece.HRW said outdoor taps and showers were not accessible for wheelchair users in the camps it visited. An 85-year-old Syrian woman in a wheelchair told the group she had not showered in a month because she could not reach the facilities.Several camps also lacked ramps to the toilets and elsewhere, an uneven, rocky terrain prevented some people from even reaching toilets with ramps, it said.Disabled refugees face varying hurdles, it found. In one case, a 24-year-old deaf Syrian man whose hearing aids were damaged when he crossed the Aegean Sea by rubber boat in February received new aids only in October.Asked to comment on the report before its release, a government spokesman, Giorgos Kyritsis, said Greece was "doing its best" and acknowledged "it's highly likely we have not yet succeeded in facilitating the needs (of those with disabilities)."Roland Schoenbauer, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Greece, said: "UNHCR agrees that most of the government-run sites do not meet the standards for accommodating people with specific needs ... That's why we have prioritised people with disabilities in our accommodation scheme."The report, based on interviews with 40 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants across Greece, said rushed registration procedures meant many disabled were not identified properly."If you don't say it yourself, no one will ask you," a medical professional working for Medecins Sans Frontieres was quoted as saying. "If it is a disability that is not obvious, visible, even if a refugee reports it, it won't be registered."The group cited an Iraqi couple in their twenties saying they were not allowed to register their disabilities because they did not have a medical certificate for proof, even though they visibly struggled to stand or walk."Greek authorities, the EU, the UN, and aid organizations should make sure that people with disabilities are no longer an afterthought," Barriga of Human Rights Watch said.

Reportedly, eleven of the total suspects were Syrians, one is Palestinian and seven are Turkish.

The leaders of the human smuggling gang were reported to be two men of Turkish and Syrian-origin.

The refugees who intended to sneak into Europe included singers, who perform in a wedding organization in Izmir to earn a living.

Europe fails to comply with EU-Turkey deal: Greece Europe does not hold up its end of the EU-Turkey deal, official Greek government numbers show.Nine thousand more refugees should have been relocated in 2016 based on the EU-Turkey deal that was signed in March, according to the Greek Migration Ministry.The reason these refugees remain stranded in Greece is that EU countries refuse to let them in. In addition, the acceptance of relocation requests by member states should happen in a ten-day period, however, it usually takes up to six months, the ministry reports. The EU-Turkey deal states that Turkey should stop the refugees from illegally entering Europe, while EU countries would participate on the relocation programme in order to help decongest Greece.After the deal was implemented, the Greek Asylum Service had approved more than 21,400 relocation requests by refugees. A little over 13,600 places became available in EU countries, hence leaving 9,000 stuck in Greece.According to the ministry, the main reason behind this is the lack of space in appropriate facilities in destination countries. Also, countries like Hungary and Poland add to the problem by not accepting any refugees whatsoever.Meanwhile, Turkey respects the deal by almost eliminating the refugee flows from its coasts to the Greek islands.Official government data show that in 2016, more than 51,000 people requested international protection in Greece, more than half of them being Syrian.According to UNHCR, almost 173,500 refugees and migrants arrived in Greece last year, with more than 62,000 remaining in the country.

Over 4,500 dead bodies found off Italy in 2016

In December of 2016, the European Union took a contradictive move to extend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission which has been engaging in discovery, monitoring and surveillance activities to prevent the passage of refugees into Europe via the Aegean Sea.

The decision made by the European Parliament (EP) is to pay an extra 6 billion euros for the extension of the mission, instead of paying 3 billion euros in cash to Turkey, as a part of the 2015 deal of Turkey and the EU to stop migrants from travelling to Europe.

The EU's move is contradictive to all the efforts that aimed to prevent the killings during the refugees' illegal passage, while Turkey is putting all its effort into protecting the refugees; as more than 3 million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey from civil war in their country.

Disaster hits Greek fishermen who saved refugees Kostas Pinteris and Thanasis Marmarinos are not just two traditional fishermen from a small Greek fishing village. They are among the fishermen and residents of Skala Sikamias, Lesbos Island, who used their small fleet to rescue thousands of refugees and migrants from the Aegean Sea in 2015. However, Kostas and Thanasis now face hard times of their own as their fishing boats -- which saved so many lives -- were unable to withstand extreme winter storms that struck Greece earlier this month. Lesbos attracted attention recently when the international community reacted to footage showing hundreds of people living in tents under freezing temperatures. There were accusations for unpreparedness to deal with such a situation, despite forecasts which predicted severe weather conditions. But not even the locals could prepare sufficiently for such weather. "Who could have expected that? I am 63 years old and this is the first time I've seen so much snow," Thanasis told Anadolu Agency. He is one of the fishermen from Skala Sikamias who rescued many refugees and migrants during the 2015 crisis. Located close to Turkey, the small village of no more than 100 residents received thousands of refugees and migrants who sought a new life in Europe. Along with Kostas Pinteris and several other fishermen from Skala Sikamias, Thanasis used his fishing boat to pull refugees from half-deflated craft and take them to shore. Once they were safe on dry land, the residents would offer them food and clothing. "If it wasn't for us, especially from here [Skala Sikamias], we would now be mourning thousands of drowned people," Thanasis says. "This is what we did for five months. The NGOs and volunteers came afterwards. We used to pull [refugees] out; the villagers gave them clothes," he added. "We emptied the tools from our boats because they're small, in order to fit in as many people as possible," says 40-year-old Kostas Pinteris. "Even if you didn't want to help, when you see someone drowning you just reach out your hand to help him, whoever that person is. We made no exceptions -- whoever was in need we rescued them. Instead of fishing for fish, we fished for souls," Kostas told Anadolu Agency. "I saw them in the sea and rushed to save as many people as possible," he recalls. "I tried to catch as many small hands as possible," explaining how he gave priority to women and children. Thanasis has been a fisherman for almost 50 years. As soon as he finished school, he started to fish for a living like most of the people from Skala Sikamias. His only source of income for his family was his small boat Ai Nikolas (St. Nikolas). Now, he is unable to work. When the snow covered the island, his moored boat -- despite being covered with a protective tent -- capsized under the weight of the snowfall. Its electronic equipment and fishing tools were ruined. According to Thanasis, all that is left from his boat is the hull -- the rest is now useless. "This is double damage for us because we are also losing money as we are not out there doing our job," says Kostas, whose boat suffered the same fate. Neither man was insured. When they asked the authorities for help, they were told that because the incident was so exceptional there was no compensation available. The two fishermen estimate that depending on the equipment that that they have to buy and fix, the cost of the damage is over EUR10,000 ($10,700). Until something is done for the boats, the two fishermen will have to get by with the help of others.International recognition Amid the fishermen's bad luck, an important distinction for the island has come which could make the future a bit better for them. On Jan. 31, the mayor of Lesbos, Spyros Galinos, will travel to Stockholm, Sweden to share the Olof Palme Prize -- an international peace award -- along with the mayor of Lampedusa and Linosa, Giusi Nicolini. The two Greek mayors will accept the award for "their inspiring leadership in one of the most difficult periods of our time" according to an official announcement. Since the award consists of a diploma and a substantial stipend, the mayor of Lesbos has promised that he will distribute the prize money to the people of Lesbos, giving priority to the two fishermen from Skala Sikamias. "There was a collective effort on the island to defend the values of freedom, democracy and solidarity to the people in need," Spyros Galinos told Anadolu Agency. "During that bad time, the people of Lesbos were given the opportunity to not only defend their values but also the European values that unfortunately other countries have forsaken," he added. An award nomination is not something new for the island, as two locals from Skala Sikamias -- 85-year-old Emilia Kamvysi and 40-year-old fisherman Stratis Valiamos -- were chosen to be nominated in 2016 for the Nobel Peace Prize. Skala Sykamias was also recently recommended as a top tourist destination for 2017 by the magazine AFAR7, in an effort to boost the village's local economy.

In 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded around 200,000 refugees in Italy, while Italian security forces reached the dead bodies of 4,655 refugees. The same figure was 3,771 in 2015.

Turkey and the EU agreed in November 2015 to stop migrants from travelling to Europe, in return for 3 billion euros in cash, a deal on visa-free travel for Turkish citizens within the Schengen zone and renewed talks on joining the 28-nation bloc.

More than 3 million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey from the civil war, now in its sixth year.

Turkey hosts the world's largest amount of refugees, amid the greatest global movement of refugees ever recorded.

Millions left Syria and more than 600,000 people have been killed in the Syrian Civil War.

Source: Yeni Safak website in English 1515 gmt 20 Jan 17


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The Guardian(London)


April 20, 2017 Thursday 8:24 AM GMT 


Peter Dutton alleges Manus shooting rampage sparked after refugees seen with boy;
Immigration minister's version of events disputed by refugees and contradicts evidence by Papua New Guinean authorities that fight was sparked by football field dispute


BYLINE: Ben Doherty and Helen Davidson


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 861 words


The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has alleged a shooting rampage by Papua New Guinea navy personnel at the Manus Island detention centre on Good Friday was sparked after refugees were seen leading a small boy into the centre.

But this version of events has been fiercely disputed by refugees - who have accused the minister of lying - and contradicts police and defence force evidence which say the fight was sparked over a football field dispute. The police said "drunken soldiers ... rampaged" through the centre, shooting into the air and indiscriminately assaulting people.

Evidence from police, defence force and refugee witnesses to the shooting on Manus Island say the confrontation escalated from a fight over who was allowed to use the soccer field near to the detention centre and inside the naval base which houses the centre. 

Related: Manus Island shooting caused by drunk soldiers, police say

None of the authorities on the island, or those held inside the detention centre, have mentioned a boy in the six days since the shooting.

In an interview on Sky News, Dutton said three asylum seekers were seen leading a five-year-old boy towards the detention centre.

"I think there was concern about why the boy was being led, or for what purpose he was being led, away back into the regional processing centre," the minister said on Thursday.

Dutton said there was significant angst surrounding the incident among the PNG community.

"I think it's fair to say that the mood had elevated quite quickly. I think some of the local residents were quite angry about this particular incident and another alleged sexual assault," he said.

"Again, I don't have the full details and those matters are under investigation."

Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian journalist and Kurdish refugee held on Manus Island, said the shooting was sparked after a fight in the early evening of Good Friday, when naval personnel asked a group of refugees to leave the soccer field field, citing orders from the base commander. Security staff tried to break up the fight and were assaulted, and refugees threw rocks at the naval staff.

Boochani said the minister's allegation about the boy's treatment being the cause of the shooting was untrue.

"It's a big lie, and he wants to hide the truth," Boochani said. "He is lying and he wants to deny that he has responsibility for refugees and Australian citizens who are working here."

Boochani said the comments were dangerous because they would create further tension between refugees and the Manusian population.

"Local people and refugees are both victims under this harsh Australian policy."

Boochani said that from Thursday, the navy commander has ordered that refugees cannot use the soccer field until an investigation into the shooting is complete.

"If the fight started because the refugees wanted to take a boy to the centre, why did the navy commander order that we cannot use the soccer ground?"

Related: Churches demand Manus Island asylum seekers be evacuated

PNG police confirmed in a statement that "a group of drunken soldiers" had "rampaged" through the detention centre, "firing several shots into the air and indiscriminately assaulting policemen, PNG immigration officers, other service providers and asylum-seekers".

A statement from the PNG defence force alleged an officer was assaulted by an asylum seeker "which led to an escalation of the confrontation".

"Rocks were allegedly thrown by asylum seekers and shots fired by the members of the naval base," the statement read.

"[A] few people [were] treated for minor injuries."

Neither the police nor navy mentioned a boy.

Community tension and hostility towards refugees has reportedly increased since those detained inside the naval base were given the ability to travel into nearby Lorengau township.

In March a 28-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker was arrested for the alleged assault of a 10-year-old PNG girl, and in January an asylum seeker was charged with assaulting a 18-year-old woman.

The Manus MP Ron Knight predicted at the time there may be violence. Those alleged attacks also follows a number of others by staff working at the detention centre, including the alleged drugging and gang rape of a PNG woman who worked at the centre by expatriate colleagues, including Australian citizens.

The PNG government has ordered the Manus Island detention centre closed after nearly four years of detention, and the Australian government has committed to shuting the centre by 31 October. But the fate of the more than 800 refugees and asylum seekers housed on Manus remains unclear.

The US departments of state and homeland security are undertaking "extreme vetting" of refugees for possible resettlement in the US, but president Donald Trump has made no guarantees on how many might be accepted.

The Australian government says there will be a "balance" of refugees left on Manus Island, but that it is not in discussions with any other potential resettlement countries, and that those left must resettle in PNG.

Only about 30 refugees have resettled in PNG over four years. The government firmly maintains that no one from its two offshore detention islands will ever come to Australia.


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:38 PM GMT 


Could Mo Farah be banned from US under Trump's 'Muslim ban'? Britain's greatest Olympian has dual-nationality;
Gold medal winner Farah was born in Somalia and would appear to be banned from entering the US under Trump's new rules


BYLINE: By Steve Robson


SECTION: NEWS,UK NEWS


LENGTH: 869 words


Britain's greatest ever Olympian Sir Mo Farah could be banned from the United States under Donald Trump's new immigrant ban.

A practising Muslim, Farah, 33, was born in Mogadishu and holds dual British-Somali nationality.

He moved to Britain at the age of eight barely speaking a world of English, before rising to become Britain's most successful athlete with double gold medal wins in 2012 and 2016. 

Farah currently lives and trains in Portland, Oregon, with his family including his wife Rhianna and their four children.

On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order which means no visas can be issued to immigrants from seven mainly-Muslim nations including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

Trump also banned all refugees from entering the US for the next four months, and singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

The order would appear to leave four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah barred from entering the US.

There has been no official comment from Farah's camp as yet, although he he is currently in Ethiopia training, according to the Guardian.

It will pile more pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May who faced a furious backlash after she refused to condemn Trump's ban.

Opposition leaderJeremy Corbyntweeted that May's silence was a "disgrace".

After initially dodging questions about her views on the controversial move, the Prime Minister then insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

As Mrs May declined to speak out, her counterpart in Turkey, a country with a dismal record on human rights, hit out at the US and other international leaders also raised their concerns.

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Labour leaderJeremy Corbynsaid: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to."

tweet2

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

Mrs May was pressed repeatedly about her views on the refugee ban during a press conference in Ankara where she had been holding talks with Turkish leaders.

She told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees."

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

Turkish PM Binali Yildirim hit out at the ban, warning the only way to tackle the refugee crisis was to deal with the reasons they were fleeing.

He said: "You cannot solve this issue of refugees by putting up walls. You have to eradicate the root causes of this. You have to eradicate the regional discrepancies in terms of development."

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is of Iraqi origin but a British citizen, said a US immigration lawyer had confirmed that he would be hit by the ban,

"A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen," he said. "Sad day for the USA.

"Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat."

The US president has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months but blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

A 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations has been imposed.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Mrs May's behaviour was "shocking".

He said: "Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on."

"At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal," he added. "They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way."

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country welcomed "those fleeing persecution, terror and war" regardless of their faith.

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said Mr Trump must not be invited to address both Houses of Parliament from Westminster Hall on his state visit later this, pointedly insisting "those who wish to fawn over him" should do so elsewhere.

Mrs May issued a caution to Turkey's president on human rights during the one day trip, which saw the two nations sign a £100 million-plus defence deal.

The PM was the first Western head of government to visit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since last July's failed coup against his regime, which was followed by a state of emergency characterised by more than 40,000 arrests, the dismissal of thousands of public officials and the closure of numerous media outlets.

It followed directly on from her trip to meet President Trump in the White House on Friday.


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The Guardian(London)


May 31, 2017 Wednesday 10:56 AM GMT 


Tony Abbott says Asio director needs to 'think again' on causes of terrorism;
Former prime minister says too many people 'pussyfoot' around terrorism's link with 'killing in the name of Islam'


BYLINE: Katharine Murphy Political editor


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 526 words


Tony Abbott has told Australia's spy chief to "think again" about his analysis that people become terrorists because they adhere to a violent interpretation of Sunni Islam, not because they are refugees.  

The former prime minister used an interview on 2GB on Wednesday afternoon to declare too many people "pussyfoot around the fact that just about every terrorist incident of recent times involves someone killing in the name of Islam".

"We've had three terrorist attacks in Australia and all three of them involved either people claiming to be refugees or the children of refugees," Abbott said. "I think that the Asio director really needs to think again on this issue.

Related: What if Australia already had its 'Trump moment' - and it was Tony Abbott? | Peter Lewis

"I don't think public officials help the debate by denying the facts."

The chief of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, Duncan Lewis, has come under intense pressure from conservative commentators, including the News Corp columnist and Sky News broadcaster Andrew Bolt, after his response to questions from the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, on 26 May about whether there was a connection between terrorism and refugees. 

The Asio chief told Hanson at Senate estimates last week he had no evidence of any connection. He said the source of terrorism wasn't Australia's refugee program but "radical Sunni Islam".

With Bolt and Hanson campaigning, Lewis made himself available for a rare public interview with the ABC on Wednesday morning.

Lewis stood by the evidence he gave last week but provided some more context.

"We have had tens of thousands of refugees come to Australia over the last decade or so and a very few of them have become subjects of interest for Asio and have been involved in terrorist planning," the Asio chief said.

"I'm not denying that. I've not said that there are no terrorists who have not been refugees or who have not been the sons and daughters of refugees born in this country.

"But the context is very important. The reason they are terrorists is not because they are refugees but because of the violent, extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam that they have adopted."

Lewis said sons and daughters of refugees were "in the group that have resorted to radicalisation but I think it is very wrong to say that it is because of their refugee status".

"They are radicalised for different reasons," he said.

His observations were backed up on Wednesday by the Australian federal police commissioner, Andrew Colvin.

Colvin told the National Press Club: "The challenge that we're dealing with is, by and large, a radical interpretation of Sunni Islam."

Related: Tony Abbott says NSW Liberals reform event is 'rich people's convention'

The AFP commissioner said he was concerned about a tendency in Australia to reduce the conversation about terrorism to "absolutes."

"The world we live in, the world that Asio lives in, is far more nuanced than that," Colvin said.

Abbott, however, suggested there was no place for nuance in the debate. "Islam has to face up to this," he said. "We can't make excuses for this evil. It has no place in the modern world."


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


American army translator who worked for the government for TEN YEARS is among migrants and refugees blocked from entering the U.S. while firms like Google scramble to get Middle Eastern workers back into the country 


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1444 words



An Iraqi refugee who worked as a translator for the U.S. Army for 10 years is among those who have been blocked from entering the United States just hours after Trump signed an executive order introducing his tough new immigration bans. 

Seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were stopped from boarding a flight from Cairo on Saturday, while at least two Iraqis were detained after flying in to New York's JFK airport on Friday night. 

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

Scroll down for video 

It has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.

Two Iraqi refugees, including one who had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years, were detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday, The New York Times  reports.

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them.

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who had worked as a interpreter with the U.S. Army in Iraq, was travelling with his wife and three children at the time. 

The other man, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son in Texas. 

Lawyers representing the two Iraqi men were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning. 

Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees.  

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

TRUMP'S LIST FOR 'EXTREME VETTING' MEASURES: 

Trump's executive order provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm'.

They include:


After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have excluded from the order.

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey, the NY Daily News reports. 

SYRIAN REFUGEE'S DREAM OF MOVING TO U.S. SHATTERED:

Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'


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Express Online


March 13, 2017 Monday 12:01 AM GMT 


Syrian refugees to move into home adapted for disabled after no family found to move in


LENGTH: 514 words


A FAMILY of Syrian refugees will be moved into a six-bedroom home adapted for the disabled after a local family could not be found to move in.

GETTY 

Syrian refugees to move into home adapted for disabled after no family found to move in

The property has been used as emergency accommodation for a year but Sevenoaks District Council and the landlord, West Kent Housing Association, had not been able to find a suitable permanent family.

Residents had been lobbying the council to house refugees in the home in Eynsford, Kent, since last year.

After considering other options, such as splitting the property or selling it, the decision was made to resettle a refugee family.

Cllr Michelle Lowe, cabinet member for housing, said: "We have agreed to bring our first Syrian refugee family to the district and I firmly believe this is a good outcome for everyone.

NC

Residents had been lobbying the council to house refugees in the home in Eynsford, Kent Related articles Two-thirds of female refugees have been 'raped, beaten or pimped out' Migrant crisis proves we are right to leave the EU

"We offered support to councils across Kent since the start of the government's Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, but with no housing of our own, and no properties coming forward from the private rented sector, we couldn't make a commitment to house any refugees.

"We will be helping a refugee family escaping from a terrible situation. 

"At the same time the district keeps a social rented home that otherwise could have been sold and would never be available through the housing register again.

"We have been overwhelmed with the generosity of local people contacting us to offer support."

GETTY

West Kent agreed to help the council support the family fleeing the war in Syria

The six-bedroom semi-detached home was specially adapted some time ago with wheelchair ramp access, but requires some modernisation and updating.

The property was used for emergency accommodation while the council and landlord tried to find a family who needed a home of that size.

The decision was made at the cabinet meeting on Thursday, March 9.

The house was available to residents of Sevenoaks and neighbouring authorities.

West Kent considered splitting the property into two or more smaller homes, but due to the way it is laid out, it was not cost effective.

They considered selling the property but there was no guarantee the money would have been reinvested in the Sevenoaks District.

Frank Czarnowski, West Kent chief executive said: "West Kent is pleased this home will support the council to help a family fleeing the war in Syria and we hope it will give them an opportunity to settle and thrive while they remain in the UK."

Sevenoaks District Council are also supporting the government's community sponsorship scheme which encourages local groups to have a greater role in supporting refugee families.

Related articles EU chief admits over 10,000 child migrants ARE MISSING Refugees are using THIS Facebook tech for free help to claim asylum App built to help refugees successfully CLAIM ASYLUM in UK and the US


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The Guardian


January 30, 2017 Monday 1:58 PM GMT 


US travel ban: May is ahead of Trump in undermining refugee protection system;
PM has refused to criticise the underlying policy behind the ban - and a 2015 speech has her advocating going further


BYLINE: Alan Travis Home affairs editor


SECTION: POLITICS


LENGTH: 704 words


Don't be surprised if Theresa May doesn't get too upset about President Donald Trump's travel ban, because when it comes to resiling from the international system of refugee protection she is already several steps ahead of him.

The prime minister was caught on the hop when she flew back from Turkey on Saturday night into a Twitter-storm over how a little-noticed "dual-national" element of the ban could catch Sir Mo Farah and the Iraqi-born Conservative MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, Nadhim Zahawi. 

Downing Street rushed out a statement saying it did not agree with the ban but would make sure it did not affect any British nationals.

However, May refused to criticise - as she had done at a press conference in Turkey when asked three times about the policy - the underlying policy behind the ban.

Trump's executive order suspends the US's entire refugee resettlement programme - the largest in the world - for 120 days, places a temporary 90-day ban on visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and an indefinite ban on the arrival of Syrian refugees.

Trump frames the policy as one of keeping the US safe from terrorism. But a quick glance at the list - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - shows that it clearly omits several major candidates for a US anti-terrorist "no-fly list" such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

This is because the list is not a top seven terrorist producing countries list but a list of the top seven countries which produce refugees who have been given sanctuary in the US - often fleeing state terrorism and war.

Trump has declared the aim of his policy is to cut the number of UNHCR-nominated refugees resettled in America this year from the planned 110,000 to 50,000.

The UN refugee agency's resettlement programme, in which US presidents have taken the biggest role since 1980, is the largest in the world. It has, up to now, been seen as a crucial component of America's national identity as welcoming the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free".

But Trump's adoption of temporary bans and "extreme vetting" in the name of anti-terrorism now threatens to undermine the international system of refugee protection and the global stability it helps to provide. It will also leave in limbo 60,000 UNCHR-nominated refugees who have already been through a lengthy vetting process and now banned from entering the US.

At the heart of the matter is Trump's rejection of the UNHCR vetting process, despite the fact that those nominated have to be approved by no fewer than 24 US departments and agencies before they are accepted for resettlement.

The UNHCR says it is "acutely aware" of host countries' "entirely legitimate" concerns about the resettlement programme being used as a cover for terrorists, and adds that it uses biometric data, audit trails and an electronic registration database to ensure the integrity of its programmes.

But this is not enough for Trump. He is clearly going to substitute a US-only vetting system, further undermining trust in the UNHCR system.

Theresa May is already way past him. When David Cameron pledged Britain to take 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees May insisted that the UNHCR not be involved in nominating them. Instead Home Office officials have been sent to the camps to select by their own criteria those who should be brought to Britain.

Related: The Guardian view on Theresa May's speech: back to the nasty party | Editorial

May wants to go much further. In her party conference speech in October 2015, amid the world's worst refugee crisis since the second world war, she outlined a new asylum strategy under which only temporary protection would be given to all but the world's most vulnerable refugees. She said she was keen to see the international legal definition of a refugee made much stricter.

The prime minister may well have been embarrassed by the clumsy "dual-national" interpretation of Trump's temporary bans that led to the prospect of Farah and Zahawi being told they were no longer welcome in the US.

Trump's underlying policy on refugees is to undermine the accepted international system of refugee protection that has been in place since 1951. Theresa May is already ahead of him on that road.


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ENP Newswire


June 8, 2017 Thursday


-EU and UNRWA sign new landmark agreement and reaffirm joint commitment to support Palestine refugees


LENGTH: 743 words


EU and UNRWA sign new landmark agreement and reaffirm joint commitment to support Palestine refugees.

On 7 June 2017, Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission; Johannes Hahn, Member of the European Commission in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations; and Pierre Krahenbuhl, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), signed a Joint Declaration on EU support to UNRWA for the period 2017-2020. They also announced the signature of the financial agreement for the EU contribution to the UNRWA Programme Budget for 2017, which covers the Agency's essential services in terms of education, health care, and relief and social services.
 



In line with the Joint Declaration, Federica Mogherini recognised the essential role of the Agency in the Middle East. 'With its tireless work, UNRWA keeps supporting Palestine refugees, providing education, promoting socio-economic development and stability in the Middle East,' she said. 'The international support is key to UNRWA: the European Union will keep investing in one of the pillars of its Middle East peace policy.'

The 2017-2020 Joint Declaration strengthens the political nature of the EU-UNRWA partnership and reaffirms the European Union's commitment to promoting the rights of Palestine refugees and supporting the long-term financial stability of the Agency in a context of intensified budgetary constraints and operational challenges.

'The European Union is committed to support UNRWA in further reform efforts, building on the important work underway, to ensure the provision of quality core services to vulnerable Palestine refugees. I am delighted that the EU/UNRWA partnership will from 2017 take an increasingly visible form in support to selected schools and health clinics,' said Commissioner Hahn.

Pierre Krahenbuhl thanked the European Union for its long-standing commitment: 'For the past four decades, the European Union has stood shoulder to shoulder with UNRWA, both providing the necessary humanitarian assistance in times of crisis and supporting the long-term human development of Palestine refugees,' he said. 'Today, the European Union's strong and reliable support - both political and financial - continues to be instrumental in mitigating the impact of multiple regional crises. It also strengthens the dignity and preserves hope for millions of Palestine refugees.'

In the Joint Declaration, the European Union committed to continue assisting UNRWA in securing financial resources to enable the Agency to support Palestine refugees. The EU will essentially contribute to the funding of quality education for 500,000 children, primary health care for more than 3.5 million patients and assistance to over 250,000 acutely vulnerable Palestine refugees.

On the margins of the signing ceremony, the European Union and UNRWA announced the disbursement of a EUR 82 million commitment to the UNRWA Programme Budget for 2017. Among others, this will help pay the salaries of 32,000 local UNRWA staff, most of whom are Palestine refugees themselves, and contribute to the running costs of close to 700 UNRWA schools and 140 UNRWA health-care centres.

Background:

Since 1971, the European Union and UNRWA have maintained a strategic partnership governed by the shared objective to support the human development, humanitarian and protection needs of Palestine refugees and promote stability in the Middle East. Today, the European Union is the largest multilateral provider of international assistance to Palestine refugees. This reliable and predictable support from the European Union enables UNRWA to provide core services to more than 5 million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, including quality education for roughly half a million children and primary health care for more than 3.5 million patients.

Collectively, the EU and its Member States are also among the largest contributors to the Agency's humanitarian emergency appeals and projects in response to various crises and specific needs across the region.

In addition to the EUR 82 million EU contribution to the Programme Budget in 2017, the EU does fund ad hoc projects to respond to specific needs.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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The Guardian(London)


June 18, 2017 Sunday 8:30 PM GMT 


'I just needed a chance': from refugee to the heights of Australian medicine;
After fleeing Vietnam by boat in 1981, a dishwashing job at St Vincent's hospital was Tuan Nguyen's lucky break


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: SOCIETY; Version:1


LENGTH: 1484 words


Tuan Nguyen's lucky break came in the form of a Mrs Ramsay, who cast an eye over his CV, and offered him a job washing dishes in St Vincent's hospital kitchen.

That was 1982, and Nguyen was a refugee, having fled communist persecution in his native Vietnam, and only days in the country.

Related: Abandoned and abused: the forgotten Syrian refugee children on a Greek detention island

Thirty-six years later, Nguyen is still at St V's, only now he is Professor Nguyen, and on Saturday was awarded a doctorate of science from UNSW for a quarter of a century researching osteoporosis and bone fractures at the Garvan Institute. 

That long-distant kitchen interview, Nguyen tells the Guardian from his Garvan offices ahead of Refugee Week, was his first, and great, lucky break in his adopted country.

"I just needed one chance, that chance to get a job and to work. That sort of contact helped me to learn the way of life in Australia."

He'd presented to St Vincent's hoping for a job in the kitchen. Asked by Ramsay if he had any experience as a kitchen hand, he fibbed: "two years".

He got the job, and began work the next day.

But, two weeks later and wracked with guilt over his white lie, he confessed to Ramsay his clumsy subterfuge.

" 'I knew'," he recalls her saying, " 'I could see from your CV you'd only been in Australia a few months, but I wanted to give you a chance'."

More than three decades later, Mrs Ramsay is long gone, but her kitchen protégé has remained.

Nguyen is now principal investigator with the Garvan Institute's Dubbo osteoporosis epidemiology study, the longest-running study of osteoporosis in the world, and which has improved prediction, diagnosis and treatment of bone fractures and researched the underlying genetic factors which contribute to the disease.

Related: Australian government pays heavy penalty for Manus mistreatment | Richard Ackland

"I was interested to study and to research," Nguyen says, "but I wanted to do something that helped the man on the street. 'What difference are you making to someone's life?' I always asked myself, because that's what important."

Nguyen fled Vietnam by boat in 1981 as communist oppression, particularly of the educated classes - he was an engineering graduate - constricted freedoms in his homeland.

Months before, his older brother had boarded a boat with 20 others - none of whom were ever heard from again, presumed lost to the ocean, "so my brother and sister and I knew how dangerous our journey would be".

"But we had no choice, we could not live in Vietnam."

Their little boat spent four days and three nights at sea, before washing up in a fishing village in southern Thailand, from where he was taken to a processing centre, where after an interview in which he said he wanted to go to Australia because he wanted to see a kangaroo, he was accepted for resettlement.

Nguyen was one of thousands accepted for resettlement as part of a global effort to assist displaced Vietnamese refugees, the forerunner to the US-led Orderly Departure Program which ultimately resettled more than 600,000 refugees in 40 countries over 17 years.

Arriving in a country he knew little about, and with all of $30 of settlement assistance in his pocket, Nguyen remembers the confusion of his first days in Australia.

But he also remembers - acutely still - the liberation of being able to travel freely, without being monitored or questioned as to what books he was reading, to whom he was speaking, or where he was going.

Related: Child refugees held in 'harrowing' conditions across south-east Asia

Nguyen had a bare few words of English - and his first efforts to learn were haphazard. He found a Dymock's bookstore in the city and tried to ask for an Oxford English Dictionary, but couldn't pronounce the title.

Eventually - by writing down the name of the book he wanted - he got the dictionary and from it, taught himself his new language.

He says he's been learning ever since. After several years holding down two jobs - "working day and night" - he went back to university, earning a masters degree in applied statistics from Macquarie University, followed by a PhD in medicine from UNSW.

And, after 27 years working on the Dubbo study, Nguyen is now its principal investigator, and his new UNSW doctorate, the university's highest academic honour, recognises his contribution to global efforts to understand and counter osteoporosis.

Nguyen was unable to return to Vietnam for nearly 18 years, but he is now a regular visitor and a contributor that country's medical research; he has established a research laboratory in Ton Duc Thang University and was a founder of the Vietnamese Osteoporosis Society.

"But here in Australia, this is my second home, and for my children their first home. Without Australia I don't have a career. In Vietnam, I might be a buffalo guy - with my Republic of Vietnam background - if I could have stayed, I might have a few fields and a buffalo."

There is a renewed focus in Australia around assisting refugees - who've often fled persecution that involves interrupting their education - quickly into education and employment in their newly-adopted country.

A 2011 study commissioned by the immigration department found that, 18 months after arriving in Australia, 43% of humanitarian entrants remain unemployed.

But the same research found "the overwhelming picture, when one takes the longer-term perspective of changes over the working lifetime of humanitarian program entrants and their children, is one of considerable achievement and contribution ".

A recent parliamentary motion from Labor member Tim Watts proposes increasing Australia's privately sponsored migration intake, under which business or community groups are able to sponsor a refugee to come to Australia, promising assistance and support.

Since 2013, approved organisations have been allowed to sponsor a small number of refugees to Australia, a total of 500 annually.

From next month, a new Community Support Program will be implemented, offering up to 1,000 visas annually. But the program will be offset against the government's humanitarian intake of 13,750: for every refugee sponsored privately, the government accepts one fewer.

Watts's motion, which also proposes de-linking private from government sponsorship, has been supported by Liberal MP Russell Broadbent and by National Andrew Broad, who has proposed increasing the figure tenfold, to 10,000 a year.

The economy of the Victorian town of Nhill, in Broad's sprawling electorate of the Mallee, has been revitalised by the arrival of more than 160 Karen refugees from camps on the Thai-Burma border.

But beyond parliamentary motions and government initiatives, refugees are also finding new ways into employment for themselves.

Refugee Talent, established by Syrian refugee Nirary Dacho and former Nauru offshore detention child protection worker Anna Robson, links people from refugee backgrounds with employers looking for people with their skills. They have already found more than 50 people into employment.

Thrive Refugee Enterprise is run by young Afghan Mahir Momand, who offers small loans to new businesses in their earliest stages.

Ignite, run by government-contracted Settlement Services International and based on the Sirolli model, assists nascent refugee-led businesses: it has helped more than 60 businesses in agriculture, construction, hospitality and manufacturing.

Career Seekers assists asylum seekers and refugees, particularly mid-career professionals and university students, with workplace knowledge and connections, placing them into internships and employment, including with government departments and major firms Macquarie, PWC, Telstra, and the Commonwealth Bank.

Tim O'Connor from the Refugee Council of Australia tells the Guardian the vast majority of refugees arrive in Australia desperate to work, seeking to provide structure to their new lives and to integrate.

"Leaving your home, your work, your family and friends behind is a great sacrifice. Historically in Australia that sacrifice has extended to the first generations starting here who work several low-skilled jobs, regardless of their skills and experience, to get a foothold in their new country. That sacrifice then pays off when the second generation excel."

O'Connor says with greater assistance in the difficult first months, refugees can "skip" the generational sacrifice and begin working and contributing to Australian society more quickly.

"The initiative and entrepreneurial spirit that refugees have used to flee, survive and establish themselves in Australia is clear. Australia is one of the world's great migration success stories, and by providing more opportunities for refugees who come here to start work earlier, every single Australian will benefit."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 4, 2017 Thursday 12:01 AM GMT 


Tens of thousands of child refugees at risk of long-term psychosocial damage, Unicef warns;
Youngsters who have fled warbeing 'set back for years to come' due to emotional distress and anxiety caused by uncertainty surrounding family reunification process


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:1


LENGTH: 1057 words


Tens of thousands of refugee children in Europe are at risk of psychosocial distress that will affect them for years to come due toliving in a protracted state of limbo, Unicef has warned.

Youngsters who have fled from Syria and other war zonesare being "set back for years to come" due to the emotional distress and anxiety caused by the uncertainty surrounding the family reunification process, which can see them waiting in temporary camps for months or evenyears.

Nearly 75,000 refugees and migrants, including an estimated 24,600 children, are currently stranded in Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and the western Balkans. Despite having a legitimate right to join families in destination countries in western Europe, most do not know whether or when they will be permitted to move forward. 

Read more

Child refugees in northern France 'facing exploitation on daily basis'

Following the child refugee trail through the streets of Paris

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

The situation is particularly acute for single mothers and children stuck in Greece or the Balkans waiting for reunification with family members in other EU countries, Unicef warned, with adult males often being the first family members to make the trip to Europe, and the rest of the family following later.

Following the border closures and implementation of the EU-Turkey statement last year, women and children are increasingly being held up in transit countries from where they must apply for family reunification with their loved ones - a process that typically takes between 10 months and two years.

Unicef warned that the process could be "painstakingly slow". In 2016, nearly 5,000 family reunification requests - including 700 from unaccompanied and separated children - were made from Greece, with only 1,107 successful applicants having reached their destination country by the end of the year.

The number of refugees and migrants stranded in Greece, Hungary and the western Balkans has meanwhile continued to grow - increasing by around 60 per cent over the past year, from 47,000 in March 2016 to nearly 80,000 at the end of April.

Children play among Iso-boxes, containers converted into refugee shelters, at Kara Tepe refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece (

Unicef

)

"We are seeing single mothers and children who have not seen their husbands and fathers for months or even years," said Afshan Khan, Unicef Regional Director and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe

"The family reunification process is slow and its outcome uncertain, and it is this uncertainty which can cause significant emotional distress and anxiety for children and families, setting them back for years to come."

Sofia Tzelepi, a lawyer working with Unicef partner Solidarity Now, added: "Many single mothers are feeling stuck and seem to have lost motivation. Their emotional state affects their children."

One mother, Rosa Hamy, 28, and her children, two-year-old Arin and Mohammad, six, fled from Syria in 2014 and have beenliving in a makeshift camp in Thessaloniki, Greece, since March last year.

Rosa Hamy, 28, and her children, two year-old Arin and Mohammad, six, from Al Raqqa, Syria, in their unit at the Sinatex Kavalri refugee camp near Thessaloniki, Greece (

Unicef

)

At the 10-month mark, Ms Hamy said she was granted her first interview with relocation services, which in eight months from now, might allow her family to reunite with their father in Germany. She told Unicef her children had stopped eating properly and were constantly stressed.

"We are stuck here. The most difficult thing is for the children. They don't eat their food, and they're are tired and stressed all the time," she said.

"They cry and say, 'Where is our father? Why doesn't he come here? This is daddy's fault'. I tell them daddy is going to come and take us, but my kids say: 'You always say that and he never comes.'

"We don't have anymore patience, we cannot take it anymore. Sometimes I get nervous with the kids, and I think I'm going to hit them, but I say to myself 'It's not their fault', and then I calm myself down by crying."

Another refugee stranded in Greece, Azhar Khalil, 18, was a child when she fled Syria two and half years ago, and is now living in a shelter with her family at Skaramangas, the largest camp in Greece, housing over 3,000 people in the port area of northern Athens.

Azhar Khalil, 18, from Syria, looks out of her family's shelter at Skaramangas Refugee Camp in northern Athens, Greece

The family intended to travel to Germany where they have close relatives and feel that there are more options available to refugees, but when they arrived in Europe in March 2016theEU-Turkey deal had stopped the flow of refugees in Greece, where they have been in limbo ever since.

"Welcome to my life. We left Syria exactly 29 months, 19 days, and four hours ago," Ms Khalil told Unicef.

"Sometimes I feel trapped, but in my books, my study, I can feel freedom. I've lost so much time. There is so much I want to do, but I can't do it here.

"I wake up in here every morning, and I see six people in our tiny room, and I think: 'I need to make this situation better.' I have to fight, and every day I fight to improve."

The number of children stranded in Europe who could be eligible to join family in the UK is unknown, and NGOs are urging the UK Government to ensure appropriate resources are available to identify eligible children in Europe and support them through the family reunion process.

Read more

Refugee children being raped and forced into prostitution in Greece

Last month, a study by Harvard University warned of a "growing epidemic" of sexual exploitation and abuse in Greece, while in March Save the Children warned desperate refugees trapped in Greece were self-harming and attempting suicide as a result of "disastrous" EU policies, with more refugees dying than ever before while attempting to reach Europe following the controversial deal struck with Turkey.

"Keeping families together is the best way to ensure that children are protected, which is why the family reunification process for refugee and migrant children is so important," Ms Khan added.

"With the number of those stranded continuing to rise, it is incumbent on member states to alleviate procedural bottlenecks so that families can get back together as quickly as possible."


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thetimes.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:01 AM GMT 


May refuses to condemn Trump's refugee ban


BYLINE: Duncan Geddes | Rhys Blakely and Boer Deng, Washington


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1148 words


Theresa May has refused to condemn Donald Trump for imposing a sweeping ban on refugees that has seen some detained at airports and could prevent permanent US residents from returning home.

Syrian refugees have been barred from the United States indefinitely under an executive order signed by the president last night. Visitors from seven other countries, most of them Muslim, are subject to a three-month freeze on visas. A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman sowed confusion by reportedly saying in an email to Reuters that the ban also applied to green card holders, who can legally live and work in the US.

Asked about the ban at a press conference in Turkey this afternoon, Mrs May said that the United States was responsible for its own refugee policy. She has previously said that the "special relationship" between Britain and the US, affirmed in a personally warm visit to the White House yesterday, meant that the countries could speak frankly when they disagreed.

The ban, described as "extreme vetting" by Mr Trump's team, has drawn international criticism. Iran has vowed to retaliate against what a spokesman described as an "open affront against the Muslim world". 

"Instead of countering terrorism and protecting American people, these measures will be written in history as a gift to extremists and their supporters," the spokesman added.

Immigration lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union appeared in a federal court in New York today on behalf of two Iraqi men, who they said were a former US government worker and the husband of a former US security contractor.

The men had US visas but were detained at John F Kennedy airport hours after Mr Trump signed his executive order, the lawsuit said.

It was unclear how many passengers were being barred from entering the US. The Dutch airline KLM has refused service to seven passengers from affected countries, while five Iraqis and one Yemeni were barred from boarding a flight from Cairo, according to sources speaking to Reuters.

Mana Yegani, a lawyer who works with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said that travellers with dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship were kept from boarding planes from Canada to America.

"These are people that are coming in legally. They have jobs here and they have vehicles here," Ms Yegani said. "Just because Trump signed something at 6pm yesterday, things are coming to a crashing halt. It's scary."

Mr Trump said last night that the measures would keep terrorists out of the US. "We want to ensure we aren't admitting into our country the very threats that our men and women are fighting overseas," he said.

The order evolved out of one of his most contentious campaign proposals: a call for "a total and complete shutdown" on Muslims being allowed into the US. It appears to favour Christians and members of other religions over Muslims fleeing conflict.

The executive order outlined a ban on Syrian refugees until "significant changes" are made, a 120-day suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Programme and a cap of 50,000 refugees in 2017. America took 84,995 refugees in the year to September, including a record 38,901 Muslims.

In a joint statement, the UN refugee agency and International Organization for Migration said: "The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race."

Rights groups condemned the ban and its timing on Holocaust Memorial Day. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Chicago, is considering legal action.

David Miliband, the former foreign secretary and president of the International Rescue Committee, said the order was "harmful and hasty". He added: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

Google told the BBC that it had recalled staff who have travelled to affected countries from the US over fears that they will not be allowed to return.

The French president Francois Hollande said that Europe must have a "firm response" to Mr Trump, and "when he refuses the arrival of refugees, while Europe has done its duty, we have to respond".

Mr Trump was due to speak to Mr Hollande today in a series of phone calls which also included Vladimir Putin, the Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Angela Merkel of Germany, whose liberal approach to refugees he sharply criticised on the campaign trail.

In a joint statement, the UN refugee agency and International Organization for Migration said: "The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement program is one of the most important in the world.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race."

Rights groups condemned the move and its timing on Holocaust Memorial Day. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Chicago, is considering legal action.

David Miliband, the former Labour minister and president of the International Rescue Committee, said the move was "harmful and hasty". He added: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

Google told the BBC that it had recalled staff who have travelled to affected countries from the US over fears they will not be allowed to return.

Mr Trump spoke to his Mexican counterpart for an hour yesterday after a row over America's plans to build a wall along its southern border threatened to escalate into a trade war.

The phone call came after President Peña Nieto cancelled a summit with Mr Trump amid an angry Twitter exchange between the two men over who should pay for the wall.

Asked about the conversation during a joint press conference with Theresa May yesterday, Mr Trump said: "I have been very strong on Mexico. I have great respect for Mexico, I love the Mexican people." However, he added: "Mexico . . . has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders. They've made us look foolish."

He and Mr Peña Nieto would "renegotiate our trade deals and renegotiate other aspects of our relationship", he said. Mr Trump has already said that he wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico said that Mr Peña Nieto and Mr Trump had agreed not to talk publicly about the wall and described the call as "constructive and productive".

On Thursday Mr Trump appeared to embrace a proposal by some Republicans to impose a 20 per cent tax on imported goods from Mexico to pay for a wall. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said that the proceeds would pay for the border wall, which would cost at least $12 billion.


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The Times (London)


January 6, 2017 Friday  
Edition 1;
Scotland


Professor of flirting defies death threats


BYLINE: David Charter


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 35


LENGTH: 534 words


A self-styled "flirting coach" has pledged to continue his classes for refugees in Germany, despite receiving death threats for his attempts to help new arrivals to integrate. 

Horst Wenzel, 28, founded the Flirt University with a group of friends five years ago and claims a two-thirds success rate in helping clients find longterm relationships. He volunteered his services to a refugee charity in western Germany offering classes for migrants seeking to understand how to establish relationships with Germans.

Police provided protection for his latest class in Essen for a group of 30 young immigrants because of mena-cing postings on Facebook and threats to Mr Wenzel following media coverage in Germany.

Tensions surrounding young male refugees in Germany increased a year ago after mass sexual assaults by men of north African appearance in Cologne on New Year's Eve. This also led refugees to ask how they could overcome hostility and suspicion.

More than a million migrants have come to Germany in the past two years but a series of incidents has soured the welcoming atmosphere.

Mr Wenzel's refugee presentation is called "How to fall in love in Germany". He said: "The idea came from a friend of mine who works with refugees and thought it would be a good step for integration for some of them to find a German girlfriend." He claims his flirting workshops have been attended by 1,000 German clients.

His Flirt University includes a psychologist who specialises in communication, a stylist and a voice coach. In the refugee classes most of the students are young Syrian men. "We had plenty of absolute beginners who are now in Europe and they do not have any dating experience or never had relationships before," said Mr Wenzel.

"You could say there was a dating vacuum in Syria; you are either married or single with nothing in between. When you are engaged you are not allowed to have sex as a regular couple."

He added: "We also talked about how to build a social circle as some want to find sports buddies because another big issue faced by refugees is that they only have friendships with other refugees who speak Arabic so there are no friendships with the natives."

He said that once refugee clients overcame their initial embarrassment questions came thick and fast. Common questions included "how do I know if a girl wants to be kissed?", "why do relationships end after a few weeks?" and "how can I know what she/he wants?" The refugees needed basic help on western personal interaction, Mr Wenzel said.

He added: "There were lots of rightwing people writing about my project, some saying things like 'Migrants don't only steal our jobs, now they are stealing our girls'. I got letters from people wanting to kill me or saying they hoped my girlfriend got raped, or they were going to get me. I only felt more motivated by these people because there is obviously a conflict of values. They have something against refugees and do not think they should be here.

"I think they want to integrate, find a job and start a family. I am convinced we need more of those courses that [enable] a social integration bridging cultural differences. I hope that in the end there will be more love and less hate."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 3, 2017 Friday 1:05 PM GMT 


EU Malta summit: Refugees heading to Europe to be redirected to Asia and Latin America in new £30m British aid plan;
A £30m package will provide lifesaving supplies across Eastern Europe while encouragingrefugees to consider destinations other than Europe


BYLINE: Rob Merrick


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 592 words


Refugees heading to Europe will be urged to settle in Asia and Latin America instead, under a new £30m British aid package.

Theresa May announced the scheme at an EU summit in Malta, arguing it showed the Government is "stepping up its support for the most vulnerable refugees".

The package will see Britain provide lifesaving supplies for people facing freezing conditions across Eastern Europe and Greece, including warm clothing, shelter and medical care. 

However, it will also pay for better infrastructure in far-flung countries willing to take refugees who had hoped to settle in Europe.

Read more

'UK will continue to work with EU over refugee crisis after Brexit'

The move builds on an existing scheme run by The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), but it is the first time Britain's aid budget has been used to bolster it.

It risks adding to criticism that the Prime Minister is unwilling for the UK to accept a reasonable share of the refugees and migrants fleeing Syria and other war zones.

Only a few thousand Syrian refugees have been resettled in Britain - and the Government has refused to take part in an EU-wide programme to co-ordinate the continent's response to the crisis.

Government sources stressed that people would only be diverted to countries in Asia and Latin America if they were willing to be resettled there.

The Department for International Development is expected to release a list of interested countries later.

In Malta the Prime Minister insisted the focus of the £30m programme was "helping migrants return home rather than risk their lives continuing perilous journeys to Europe".

It would provide assistance to refugees and migrants across Greece, the Balkans, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sudan.

Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, said: "Conflict, drought and political upheaval have fuelled protracted crises and driven mass migration. We cannot ignore these challenges.

"This latest support from the UK will help those who decide they want to return home to do so safely, protect men, women and children from exploitation, and ensure that those caught in freezing conditions get the basic help they need to survive."

Read more

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More than 500 refugees rescued in single day as crisis continues

More than 1,000 migrants storm border at Spain's Ceuta

The package will be delivered by UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and NGO collective Start Network. Its aim is to:

* provide 22,400 life-saving relief items including tents, blankets, winter clothes such as hats and gloves and hygiene kits including mother and baby products

* help more than 60,000 people with emergency medical care, legal support and frontline workers to identify those at risk of violence and trafficking

* allow up to 22,000 people to reunite with family members they have become separated from

* help countries in Asia and Latin America that "might be able to resettle refugees put the infrastructure and systems in place to do so"

* provide more than 1,500 refugees in Egypt, including those fleeing Syria and other conflicts, with urgent health assistance and educational grants for students to go back to school

* provide a migrant centre in Sudan to enable "voluntary returns home when safe", replicating a successful scheme in Niger.

According to the Government, the package will bring UK humanitarian support in response to the migrant crisis to more than £100m since October 2015.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 14, 2017 Tuesday 12:04 AM GMT 


Gary Lineker and Kiera Knightley lead campaign to keep Dubs scheme for child refugees;
Celebrities and campaigners accuse Prime Minister of 'slamming the door shut after just 350 children have reached safety'


BYLINE: Georgina Stubbs


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 703 words


A raft of celebrities and campaigners are calling on the Prime Minister not to end the Dubs scheme for vulnerable and lone child refugees.

The scheme, named after its architect, Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs, will be capped once another 150 unaccompanied children are brought to Britain, on top of the 200 already in the UK.

Branding the decision "truly shameful", more than 200 figures including Carey Mulligan, Gary Lineker, Keira Knightley, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes have signed an open letter to Theresa May. 

Read more

Refugee turned baroness calls on government to help child refugees 

Full list of MPs who voted against Dubs Amendment for child refugees

Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn

Charities unite in anger as government quietly scraps refugee promise

The letter, backed by Help Refugees and Citizen UK's Safe Passage programme, states that it is "completely unacceptable" to "slam the door shut after just 350 children have reached safety".

"Lord Dubs was himself a child saved by Sir Nicholas Winton who rescued 669 children virtually single-handed," it reads.

"It is embarrassing that the Prime Minister's entire Government will not even manage to match the example set by her former constituent all those years ago, let alone the efforts of the Kindertransport movement of which he was a part which saved 10,000 children from the Nazis."

A storm of criticism has engulfed the Government since the announcement was made earlier this month that it will be scrapping the programme for resettling lone youngsters from mainland Europe to the UK.

Although the Government had not committed to any specific number, campaigners and opposition figures have previously called for 3,000 children to be given sanctuary.

The letter comes days after the Home Office said that due to a lack of places for vulnerable child refugees identified by local authorities, the scheme would finish at the end of the financial year.

Read more

Nicky Morgan warns Tories risk 'nasty party' image over child refugees

Despite this, the signatories of it have called the consultation with the local authorities "threadbare" and "nine months out of date", and are urging the Government to "agree to extend the programme and re-consult with councils immediately".

The letter has been signed by figures which range from authors, actors, musicians and broadcasters - these also include Coldplay, Juliet Stevenson, Gok Wan, Caroline Flack, Jude Law, Michael Morpurgo, Douglas Booth, Joely Richardson, Lily Allen, Sir Mark Rylance and Ruby Wax.

Josie Naughton, co-founder of Help Refugees, said: "The outpouring of support for the continuation of the Dubs scheme by these well-known figures and the public demonstrates that its closure is at odds with the British values that make this country great.

"We ask that the Government finds a way to do more to protect these vulnerable children fleeing war and conflict just as we did before the Second World War."

Rabbi Janet Darley, of Citizen UK's Safe Passage programme, also welcomed the "intervention by this broad range of public figures".

"Voices right across society are challenging the Government's decision to close the 'Dubs' and the lifeline it offers to the most vulnerable child refugees because we know it reflects our true national character," she said.

"Shutting the door on refugee children leaves them with a terrible choice of train tracks on the one hand and people traffickers on the other.

"Councils and communities across the country stand ready to do more. We appeal to the Government to live up to our proud history of offering sanctuary to the most vulnerable child refugees.

"Britain is better than this."

On Saturday, flanked by a group of children, local politicians and faith leaders, Lord Dubs delivered a 50,000-signature petition to the Prime Minister's Downing Street residence, accusing the Government of a "very shabby cop-out".

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has also previously said he was "saddened and shocked" at the decision.

He has insisted it is "deeply unjust" to leave the burden of caring for them on Italy and Greece, where thousands of refugees and migrants arrive from the conflict-ridden Middle East and north Africa.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 21, 2017 Sunday 2:57 PM GMT 


Thousands of refugees on Greek islands risk losing vital services as charities prepare to withdraw;
'Who's going to do child protection services on the island? Who's going to do education? Who's going to do the food?'


BYLINE: Robert Trafford


SECTION: NEWS; Version:3


LENGTH: 1099 words


Thousands of refugees in Greece are at risk of losing vital support as charities prepare to withdraw services from camps on the country's "hotspot" islands, as changes to EU funding are set to leave them out of contract by the end of July.

The Greek government will take over funding and managing support services to the camps on 31 July, but aid organisations fear the prospect of a "humanitarian gap" resulting from a poorly planned transition.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the islands have received millions of euros from ECHO, the European Commission's humanitarian division, to provide services from laundry and clothing distribution to maritime rescue and child protection.

But officials confirmed this week that the way in which ECHO supportsthe response to the crisis ischanging. As a result, the allocation of funding, as well as the selection of projects to be funded, will soon become the sole responsibility of the Greek authorities. 

Read more

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"Reception facilities in the islands will be supported via the national programme," said a European Commission spokesperson. "Funding channelled through the national programme is not managed directly by the Commission, but via the national authority responsible in Greece."

A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the situation is part of the process of "moving from emergency response to a sustainable system".

"The Greek government will assume greater responsibilities and take over services which are presently provided by UNHCR and the broader humanitarian community," he said. "UNHCR supports the government throughout this transition."

But the manner in which the proposed handover has been communicated has raised alarm, with some NGOs and local authorities relying on hearsay and rumours while others have received official instruction.

"People just don't know what's going to happen," said Nicholas Millet of Be Aware and Share (BAAS), a Swiss NGO which oversees a school project on the island of Chios. "There are no clear plans for handovers or transitions, the Government hasn't said what they're going to take over or not."

Tory MP says people should 'stop being so sentimental' about child refugees

GreekMigration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas recently described the current situation on the island as reaching breaking point, after a spate of problems including suicide attempts amongst the refugee population and violent attacks by far-right groups.

"Who's going to do child protection services on the island?" said Millet. "Who's going to do education? Who's going to do the food?"

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) currently runs two restaurants serving eight hundred meals three times a day to refugees on Chios. Director of NRC's Greek programme Gianmaria Pinto confirmed that the NGO would cease its operations there on the cut-off date, but that it would be prepared to resume services quickly if asked to.

Pinto said the decision was communicated to NRC in mid March. "The services we provide will keep running until July and then after that it's the government - through Greek NGOs, municipalities, whatever they decide."

Pinto encouraged the national and local government to work with NGOs to ensure a safe transition. "The municipality has to be informed and they have to start working. If they decide to hire a Greek NGO, fine. If they ask NRC to stay, we are ready to do that."

A spokesperson for Save the Children confirmed that the organisation was also in the dark. "We're still waiting for information about funding and operations on the islands," she said. "It's unclear yet how camps and services for refugees and migrants will be managed."

On Chios island, two members of the municipal government confirmed this week that they had received no official communication from Athens regarding the change.

Pinto also said he feared for the future of the NRC's recently opened community centre. "The day we opened we knew we would have to leave," he said. "But it's becoming a humanitarian hub, lots of agencies use the space."

Médecins du Monde (MDM) provide medical services on the island of Lesvos, which is home to over 4,000 refugees, according to UNHCR. Their operations in Moria, the island's state-run refugee camp, will stop at the end of May.

According to the president of MDM in Greece, Nikitas Kanakis, the organisation was originally told by the Greek government in March that they would have to leave Moria by the end of April, after which they began reducing staff numbers on the island. Around a week later,Kanakis said,"it was clear that they couldn't start. They couldn't find the people they needed and they needed more time."

MDM were subsequently asked to remain on the island for another month. "We want to help, but it's not easy, because we have announced to staff that their contract has finished. Now we have to ask them to return."

Kanakis said a team from the organisation would remain on the island to report on conditions and potential human rights violations within the camp, and expressed concern that vulnerable adults and children within the camp may fall through the cracks during the handover process.

"It's not an established team that will move from another place to there," he said. "I have a lot of reasons to believe they won't find all the staff that they need. But hopefully they will do it. We are waiting to see.

"It's not a bad idea that the state will take over the camps," Kanakisadded."The question is just how they will do it, and in a lot of cases they don't have the experience."

Pinto agreed that in terms of "ownership and long-term sustainability", it was important to eventually return management of the islands to the national authorities.

"In theory this is a good step forward for the government," he said. "In practice, though, what NRC doesn't want to see in August is humanitarian gaps. It's now the moment to boil down this political decision into an action plan. We still have time, the end of July is not tomorrow. But it's not very far."

Millet said the move had been a long time coming, but needed to be handled well. "If the government is going to take over services they need to think about how they effectively transition over from the NGOs. We are supportive of the government to take over the services but we need to know how, and we'll support it."


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The Guardian(London)


February 3, 2017 Friday 5:13 AM GMT 


Close Manus and Nauru, bring refugees here say 70 organisations;
Coalition of charities, aid groups, unions and thinktanks says refugee deal with US in 'serious doubt' and call for bipartisan policy to evacuate camps


BYLINE: Michael Slezak


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 729 words


With the US-Australia refugee deal now in doubt, an unprecedented coalition of more than 70 organisations has joined forces to call for immigration camps on Nauru and Manus Island to be immediately closed, with all refugees and asylum seekers brought to Australia.

Noting the "humanitarian crisis" in the camps, a joint statement by the groups said the "situation has reached crisis point, and immediate action must be taken". 

Related: 'Big personality': Australian PM puts brave face on phone call with Trump

Australia came to an agreement with the Obama administration to send 1,250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru to the US for resettlement. But Donald Trump has indicated he may not honour the deal.

"Beyond the reports of physical and sexual abuse, including of children; inadequate medical attention; suicides and attempted suicides; even a murder; the extinguishment of hope has pushed people to the edge," the letter said.

"Many of these people have been recognised as refugees. We owe them protection and safety now.

"With the US resettlement deal in serious doubt, the most obvious and humane solution is to clear the camps and bring these people to Australia until a safe long-term, appropriate outcome for them can be guaranteed.

"This is a crisis. We are calling on both major parties to form a bipartisan commitment to immediately evacuate the camps and bring these people to safety."

Phil Glendenning, president of the Refugee Council of Australia, appealed to the country's history of leadership in accepting refugees at a media conference in Sydney.

"Forty years ago when Australia faced a serious crisis with regards to refugees, we had a prime minister named Malcolm - Malcolm Fraser - and a leader of the opposition named Bill - Bill Hayden. Together they formed a bipartisan partnership to bring refugees to this country," Glendenning said.

"Now we're calling upon today's Malcolm and today's Bill to take a similar bipartisan stance and end this uncertainty of the refugees on Nauru and Manus Island.

"We've seen over the course of the last five days or so how this political ping-pong has played out between Donald Trump and our government. The unpredictability of the new president of the United States means that this deal is in jeopardy."

Glendenning told Guardian Australia he worried that even if the US agreed to honour the deal, the policy of extreme vetting might mean it was worthless anyway.

"If extreme vetting means more cruelty, more waiting , more limbo, more uncertainty, then that's not tolerable," Glendenning said.

"The thing that worries me about President Trump is he's using extreme vetting as a way of doing what he really wants to do, and that's scupper the deal."

Related: On refugees, Trump and Turnbull compete in a race to the bottom | Oliver Laughland

Elenie Poulos, national director of Uniting Justice, and a minister in the Uniting Church, said the abuse of people in detention needs to stop now: "The fact that there are people seeking asylum, and refugees who have been held on Manus and Nauru, that have been held for so long in situations that amount to state-sanctioned abuse is abysmally immoral. It has to stop and it has to stop now," Poulos said.

Poulos also said that even if the deal was agreed to by the US, the "extreme vetting" process meant it shouldn't be relied upon.

"The deal with the US is tremendously shaky. Not even in the US do they know what extreme vetting looks like. So even if the deal does hold up, there is the prospect that refugees will not be included in that deal."

Organisations and community groups that signed the statement include charities, aid groups, unions and thinktanks, as well as community and campaigning groups.

Paul Ronalds, CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement: "We know from our time providing services on Nauru that uncertainty and a lack of hope has a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers.

"The Australian government's focus on finding viable third country options for resettlement have been welcome, but those attempts have not resulted in an outcome that ends the uncertainty and provides a safe and secure home.

"These innocent people want what all Australians want - they want hope and a brighter future for their children. It's time to stop punishing them for risking their lives in that search. It's time to bring them here."


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The Independent - Daily Edition


May 13, 2017 Saturday  
First Edition


Migrants in Serbia 'sprayed with toxic insecticide' before forced eviction


BYLINE: EMILY GODDARD


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 21


LENGTH: 960 words


Authorities in Belgrade have evicted some 1,200 refugees from a makeshift camp in derelict barracks in the centre of the city, leaving several hundred - including unaccompanied children - unaccounted for. Migrants living in the abandoned structure were told to leave early on Thursday morning by officials from the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration to allow for the building's immediate demolition. Some local aid workers described the evacuation as a "remarkably smooth operation" but others reported "chaos".

"We were shocked at how inhumane and disorganised the eviction was," Rosie Johnson, a volunteer with charity SolidariTea, told The Independent. "The commissariat came in to the barracks where people were sleeping at 7am, waking people up by hitting them with tent poles, dismantling their tents while people still slept inside and not giving anyone time to gather their meagre belongings." 

Ms Johnson also said that commissariat officials wore gloves throughout the operation and were seen to be frequently washing their hands after contact with refugees in a nearby fountain. "I hoped this would go unnoticed by the guys [refugees]," she added. "But Zakir turned to me and said, 'Rosie, you and Lily [her colleague] are good people. You talk with us and you don't wash your hands after you touch us. Why do they wash their hands? We are not dirty animals.' Then Safi said simply, 'I am not an animal. Serbian people think I am animal'."

Ivan Miskovic, a spokesperson for the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, told The Independent: "They [the officials] wore gloves because they had to remove bottles and non-food items."

Video footage from Wednesday, the day before the evacuation, also shows what looks like an official in protective workwear and face mask spraying what volunteers in the Serbian capital said was toxic insecticide within the barracks while refugees and their belongings were still inside.

"It was just like an invasion of privacy and a total disregard of their dignity," a volunteer doctor said. "It was done with no regard to their humanity at all. They just came into everybody's rooms and started spraying what could have been a dangerous toxic substance. They just sprayed it over what little belongings they have, it was scary and rude and undignified."

The Commissariat has denied any role in the use of insecticide, saying it is "not mandated with any kind of spraying". It added that it could not confirm who carried out the spraying. No injuries have been reported.

Many of the refugees, of which a high number were lone boys and men of Afghani and Pakistani descent, were taken on buses to a series of government-run camps with spaces across the country. But as many as 400 were no longer accounted for at the time of writing.

"Our main concern is that over the coming weeks many people may go completely off-radar," Stijn Van der Leest, of Help Refugees, told The Independent. "This is particularly worrying given that approximately 40 per cent of the original population of the barracks is under 18, which leaves a lot of potential for trafficking, exploitation and abuse by the many smugglers that are known to operate in Belgrade." Humanitarian non-profit organisation Are You Syrious? also reported that a number of refugees were returning back in Belgrade after being transported to the official camps.

Many migrants say they feel threatened by the idea of being locked up. They also complained of overcrowding and said their basic needs were not being adequately met in the state-run camps. Ahmed, a 24-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, said he did not want to leave the barracks because although the conditions were squalid they had become his home. "In these camps we're not free, we live like animals," he said. "We're fed and then we sleep and that's all we do. In the barracks we had a good life; we were all living together here and we were free."

Mr Miskovic added that the refugees were "transported in an organised manner in buses to the reception and asylum centres" and the whole process went "without slightest incident or unwanted action".

"Moving out of migrants from the barracks and other public spaces in the Belgrade city centre was carried out in a highly human and proper manner, at the same time taking into account migrants' human rights," he said. "All the migrants, more than 900, were properly informed week in advance and provided with information on free feds in reception and asylum centres managed by the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia. Also, they were given an option to apply themselves and to choose where to be accommodated.

"It is our impression that they themselves realised that living in the barracks in question was no longer sustainable for many reasons. And, which is more important, by moving them from those places we protect them from smugglers and other forms of abuse.

"Commissariat for Refugees and Migration managed to provide enough accommodation capacities for all the migrants. On this day 6,514 migrants are accommodated in reception and asylum centers."

A number of refugees had staged a hunger strike in protest of the eviction and planned demolition after Serbian authorities warned that all migrants squatting in the centre of Belgrade would be transferred to governmental centres within one month.

The site of the former barracks is being cleared as it forms part of the plans for a £2.5bn waterside development. The Belgrade Waterfront will include skyscrapers, luxury penthouse apartments, shopping malls, hotels and parks. More than 7,200 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants were identified in Serbia at the last count, according to the UN Refugee Agency's latest report, which was published last week.


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Press Association Mediapoint


June 20, 2017 Tuesday 7:11 PM BST 


CHILD REFUGEES 'DENIED NEW LIVES THROUGH INVISIBLE CONSULTATION PROCESS'


BYLINE: John Aston and Jan Colley, Press Association


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 909 words


The Home Secretary has been accused at the High Court of carrying out an invisible, legally flawed consultation process which has denied child refugees new lives in the UK.

Local authorities were meant under what is known as ``the Dubs Amendment'' to let the Home Office know which areas of the country were ready to take unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, two judges were told.

But there was a Government failure to carry out a full UK-wide consultation, it was alleged. 

Where local authorities were approached, lack of information meant those consulted could not provide a meaningful response about the number of places they could offer.

The accusations were made by charity Help Refugees which is seeking court orders to force Home Secretary Amber Rudd to abandon a cap of 480 children for the Dubs scheme and reopen the consultation process so that consideration can be given to allowing more children in.

Laura Dubinsky, appearing for Help Refugees at a hearing in London, told the judges: ``This was a consultation by stealth - an invisible consultation that fell far short of the standards of fairness.''

Government lawyers are fighting the charity's application for judicial review, arguing there was no illegality.

Labour peer Lord Dubs, the architect of the Dubs Amendment, was at court with Ms Stevenson and other supporters.

Hoping for a legal victory, he said: ``We have to be hopeful because we all believe in it so much.''

Lord Dubs came to the UK as a refugee from the Nazis and said outside court many local authorities confused by the consultation process have since ``expressed a willingness to take more child refugees''.

The Dubs Amendment was to the 2016 Immigration Act and, from May last year, required the Home Secretary to make arrangements to relocate ``a specified number'' of vulnerable refugee children from Europe based on feedback from local authorities.

Ms Dubinksy told Lord Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Ouseley there were currently about 95,000 unaccompanied and vulnerable children living in Europe, and 10,000 had gone missing.

Human rights bodies had reported children in Greece facing degrading conditions and abusive treatment, including sexual assault.

Some resorted to prostitution to escape the camps, said Ms Dubinsky.

Outside court, actress Juliet Stevenson, who is a patron of Help Refugees, said she had just returned from visiting refugee camps in Athens where thousands of children were living in ``horrifying'' conditions in blistering heat.

She said: ``It is completely shameful that this Government has turned its back on these vulnerable children.''

Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford told the House of Lords in April there were 4,000 unaccompanied children already in local authority care, with some councils hosting a ``disproportionate'' number.

Lady Williams added: ``We are always glad to hear local authorities coming forward to take children... but it is not as if we have not consulted properly.''

The Help Refugees challenge is a test case to clarify the law and is being closely watched by lawyers acting for individual refugee children refused entry to the UK. There are currently about 37 cases.

The Dubs Amendment under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 requires ministers to make arrangements to relocate and support unaccompanied refugee children from Europe and to consult local authorities on where spaces might be found for them.

Opening the three-day hearing, Help Refugees representative Laura Dubinsky told two judges the implementation of the section had been ``haphazard and dilatory'' and the consultation process ``fell far below the minimum standards of fairness''.

There are currently about 95,000 unaccompanied and vulnerable children living in Europe, and 10,000 have gone missing.

Human Rights Watch has reported that in Greece, children face degrading conditions and abusive treatment, including detention with adults and ill-treatment by police.

The Harvard FXB Centre for Health and Human Rights has reported sexual assault of children in many camps around Greece, while some resorted to prostitution to get themselves out of those camps, said Ms Dubinsky.

She told Lord Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Ouseley she was not making an ``emotive appeal'' to the court but explaining why it was important for the Government to act with the highest standards of fairness when it consulted with local authorities.

``In some parts of the UK there was no consultation at all,'' said Ms Dubinsky.

``To the extent there was consultation it was 'consultation by stealth'.''

Authorities approached did not understand they were being consulted and were not given the bare minimum of information necessary for ``meaningful participation'', she said.

The decision was unlawful not only because of the ``grossly defective'' consultation process but because the decision to specify 480 as the number of places available under the Dubs Amendment was irrational.

Ms Dubinsky said a fair consultation process with local authorities could have identified hundreds of other places and there should be fresh consultations.

Only approximately 200 children have so far been relocated to the UK, all from the now dismantled Calais ``Jungle'' Camp, and there is no indication when the next tranche will be processed.

Delays in implementing the Dubs Amendment meant the Government was acting unlawfully in maintaining a March 20 2016 cut-off date for the eligibility of children for relocation, she said.


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standard.co.uk


March 30, 2017 Thursday 10:17 AM GMT 


Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier - review;
What can we do about this global crisis? By Robert Fox


BYLINE: ROBERT FOX


SECTION: BOOKS; Version:1


LENGTH: 691 words


One night last weekend the Italian coastguards picked up 1,000 refugees from their sinking craft off the coasts of Libya - only one person died in the complex operation.

It takes such a shock statistic of flight, violence and terror to bring the refugees back into the headlines. But the refugees should never have left the news, argue Sir Paul Collier and Alexander Betts in this timely and acutely aimed polemic.

The refugee crisis should be high up the agenda for Europe and the advanced nations of the world, because the present system of governance and regulation doesn't work, and the breakdown threatens economic order as well as fundamental values and norms of human decency and justice. 

There are about 20 million refugees in need of immediate succour and protection, while in the world there are at least 60 million stateless and fugitives. Most come from Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan.

At least 11 million Syrians - nearly half the total population - are now refugees, six million displaced inside the country. More than half of Syria's active and skilled graduates now live in Europe. There is little chance that even half will return home within a generation.

Read more

The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart- review

Hidden Nature: A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler- review

White Tears by Hari Kunzru- review

Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan- review

This book is very strong on diagnosis - as might be expected of Sir Paul, trusted consigliere to both Tony Blair and David Cameron. His study with Betts, who heads Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre, follows his excellent Exile, a broader consideration of migration. They come up with a number of ingenious remedies to at least soften the current crisis.

First, they argue for an overhaul of principle as well as practice in national and international approaches. Too much is rooted in the European experience after the Second World War, which saw tens of millions of refugees on the march. Accordingly, principles of asylum were based on persecution - this should be changed to flight from violence and the use of force.

The fledgling UN set up the UN High Commission for Refugees in 1948, backed by UN convention in 1951. The ideals of the convention are still fine, but the way the organisation has bounced from crisis to crisis over the past 70 years makes it unfit for purpose.

Today it is generally underfunded, both in general and for specific missions and tasks, which now include mass impact disaster relief. Equally, the Europeans have mismanaged the handling of the millions of refugees arriving since the Arab Spring of 2011.

Instruments such as the Schengen Agreement, which reduced internal borders, and the Dublin Regulation on asylum in the first country of arrival may have had a noble intent, but in execution they have been a shambles. Today they are all but abandoned - a threat to EU solidarity and unity as much as Brexit.

The authors recommend that the UN abandon the idea that recognised refugees should not be able to work if they are to have UN protection. They recall a visit to the Zaatari camp, home to more than 100,000 workless and depressed Syrians just inside Jordan - with a huge industrial development zone, completely empty just a few miles away.

Refugees must be allowed to work - and special development sites should employ them. And failing states are not doomed to continue to fail. They should be "incubated" for social recovery, as has happened with Ethiopia and Rwanda.

If anything, for my money, the authors place too much faith in the power of states - but this is a minor quibble. Iraq and Syria will never be unitary, and unified, states in my lifetime - or perhaps that of any of us. And there are terrible outliers threatening even more refugees in the Mediterranean.Gaza, where two million live in squalor and abandon, will run out of sweet water by 2020, according to the UN Development Programme - which suggests they will all have to move. But where and how?

The authors say it is over to all of us to decide such matters. Not so fast - their next contribution to their brilliant polemic is more than eagerly awaited.

£20, Amazon,

Buy it now


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The Guardian


January 30, 2017 Monday 3:59 PM GMT 


Saudi Arabia and Egypt are excluded from Trump's ban. Why?;
The American public needs to know the real reasons behind the arbitrary list of states


BYLINE: Aryeh Neier


SECTION: OPINION


LENGTH: 835 words


When President Trump issued Executive Orders limiting immigration on Friday, it appears there was at least one important omission. He has failed to instruct the National Park Service to put a hood over the Statue of Liberty, the world's most renowned symbol of freedom.

It is not the only omission. In identifying Muslim-majority countries from which refugees and visas will be blocked because of concerns about terrorism, President Trump left out Saudi Arabia. Yet most of those who hijacked airliners to attack New York and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, the deadliest terrorist episode in history, were Saudis. 

Does President Trump shy away from offending Saudi Arabia because he has business dealings with wealthy Saudis? Or because he expects them to curry favor by patronizing his new hotel in Washington? We don't know. By refusing to release his tax returns and by refusing to divest himself of his businesses, he raises such questions.

Another country left off the list is Egypt. Yet the leader of the 9/11 hijackers was Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian. Was Egypt omitted because President Trump is developing a warm relationship with the country's brutal dictator, General Abdel Fattah el Sisi? Again, we don't know.

Related: Donald Trump's executive order means he is now officially gunning for Muslims | Moustafa Bayoumi

Of course, excluding all Saudis and Egyptians from entering the United States is a bad idea. Applicants for refugee status or visas should be considered individually. Yet failing to exclude them highlights the arbitrariness of barring all those from some countries whose nationals have had no part in terrorism in the United States.

During his campaign, Trump focused particularly on excluding Syrian refugees, calling them "the ultimate Trojan horse." It must be acknowledged that despite the extreme suffering they have endured, the United States was not especially welcoming of Syrian refugees before President Trump took office.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has registered more than 4,800,000 Syrian refugees. The great majority are in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The Obama Administration proposed to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees to the United States in the year beginning October 1.

President Trump has now halted that process. Meanwhile Canada has announced that it resettled 39,617 Syrian refugees by January 2, 2017. The process has gone very well. Many thousands of Canadians are voluntarily helping the refugees and contributing financially to enable them to adjust successfully to their new environment.

Before accepting the Syrian refugees, Canada vetted them with care. So far, there have been no security issues. The vetting by the United States before Syrian refugees are accepted for resettlement has been similar, and has taken up to two years. As in the case of Canada, the United States has had no security incidents involving Syrian refugees.

Related: The travel ban protests demonstrate the power of disruption | Francine Prose

Yet now, except for a provision that appears intended to exempt the Syrian refugees who are Christians, and therefore of special concern to Christian Right supporters of Trump, they are to be blocked from entering the United States. This highlights the attempt to engage in religious discrimination. (Actually, if the exemption is applied as written to members of minority religions who have been most severely persecuted, the principal beneficiaries should be Yazidis from Syria and Baha'i from Iran. That may not be President Trump's intent and it may not be followed in practice.)

In the period following the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States committed a number of acts that damaged the country's worldwide standing. They include the invasion of Iraq that was justified by the false claim that Saddam Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that endangered the United States; the water-boarding, wall-slamming and other abuses of detainees from many countries at CIA "black sites"; the extremely prolonged detentions without charges or trial at Guantanamo; the poor administration of occupied Iraq that allowed the country to descend into chaos and helped to spawn terrorist movements in the region; and the torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib.

Now, by excluding all refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries and by denying all visas to nationals of those countries, President Trump is further detracting from the prestige of the United States as a country where people are treated fairly regardless of race, religion or national origin. If he thinks this will enhance safety, he is sadly mistaken.

Even if he could keep out all those he thinks might threaten the United States, he will heighten the danger to many millions of Americans who live, work and travel outside its borders. America, and Americans, would be safer if the country is seen by the world to live up to the ideals represented by the Statue of Liberty.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 22, 2017 Wednesday 1:05 AM GMT 


UK Government accused of 'appalling lack of leadership' amid global rejection of refugees;
Toxic narrativesof blame, fear and scapegoating, coupledwiththe 'perilously weak'global response to the refugee crisis, leadsAmnesty to warn that 'history will judge us'


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:1


LENGTH: 1136 words


The UK has been accused of shirking its responsibilities and showing an "appalling lack of leadership" over the international refugee crisis as safe spaces for refugees

dwindle

across the globe, Amnesty International has warned.

The human rights organisation'sannual report states that toxic narratives of blame, fear and scapegoating by those in power, coupled with a "perilously weak"global response to mass atrocities and the movement on people, has sent out a message that refugees across the globe are not entitled to basic human rights.

The report, which 

delivers the most comprehensive analysis of the state of human rights around the world, raises concerns that the failure of the UK and other nations to act accordingly in response to the crisis

has brought the idea of human dignity and equality under "vigorous and relentless assault", prompting a warning from Amnesty that

"history will judge us".

Read more

More than 70 refugees wash up dead on Libyan beach

Steve Simmons, refugee and migrant rights programme director at Amnesty International UK, told

The Independent

the UK Government was shirking its responsibility to protect people fleeing war from the hands of traffickers and other human rights abuses.

"We are in a spiralling problem whereby places of safety are getting smaller and smaller, and that comes as successive governments, including the UK, either start trying to close their borders or trying to force refugees out of their countries, including back to on-going and escalating conflicts," he said.

"Governments have powers to either take responsibility or shirk those responsibilities, and I'm afraid our Government is increasingly shirking those responsibilities.

The signal that the UK Government and governments in Europe are sending elsewhere is a dramatically bad one for refugee protection globally.

"As more and more governments turn their backs, the smugglers and traffickers turn out to be the only people seemingly offering hope to people fleeing conflict and persecution, so of course more and more people are driven to their hands."

Mr Simmons cited one of the most serious current examples of this being the situation in Afghanistan, where hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forcibly returned to a country that is getting increasingly unstable and already has more than a million people internally displaced within it.

"Iran and Pakistan are sending back hundreds of thousands of Afghans who immediately become internally displaced," Mr Simmons added.

Read more

Record number of children killed in Afghanistan as Isis expands

"And then you have European countries, including the UK, which themselves have chosen to turn their backs on Afghan refugees, and themselves are seeking to increase their forced returns of Afghans to that unstable place."

The report, titled

The State of the World's Human Rights

, condemns the "little political will"to address a long list of crises across the globe, including

war crimes committed in at least 23 countries last year.

It condemns the UK's"

continued to resist calls to take more responsibility for hosting refugees",

citing the few dozen separated children it accepted from France following the demolition of the Calais Jungleand the

criticism

from

NGOs

after a recent policy for further removing safeguards against harmful detention of immigrants within the country.

The report also outlines the marked rise in hate crime as a significant factor in the failure to respond to the plight of refugees, stating that "a hateful, divisive and dehumanising rhetoric" has developed in the West thanks to "anti-establishment" figures who blame so-called elites.

"Hateful, divisive and dehumanising rhetoric unleashed the darkest instincts of human nature.

By casting collective responsibility for social and economic ills onto particular groups, often ethnic or religious minorities, those in power gave free rein to discrimination and hate crimes, particularly in Europe and the USA

," the report says.

"When self-styled 'anti-establishment' figures blamed so-called elites, international institutions and the 'other' for social or economic grievances, they chose the wrong prescription.

"The sense of insecurity and disenfranchisement - arising from factors such as unemployment, job insecurity, growing inequality and the loss of public services - demanded commitment, resources and policy shifts from government."

H

ate crimes in the UK surged by 14 per cent in the

three months after the

Brexit

vote

in

June

compared

to the same period the

previous year,

and it is widely feared that with the triggering of Article 50 these numbers will rise further.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International, said: "When language around 'taking our country back' and 'making America great again' is coupled with proposals to treat EU migrants like bargaining chips or to ban refugees on the grounds of religion, it fosters deep hatred and mistrust and sends a strong message that some people are entitled to human rights and others aren't.

"This toxic rhetoric being used by politicians around the world risks taking us into a dark age of human rights and could lead to profound consequences for all of us.

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

"We are witnessing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War and wealthy nations like the UK and the US have shown an appalling lack of leadership and responsibility. History will judge us for this."

Mr Simmons said the conviction that the UK is doing all it can to help refugees was "absurd", and warned that if morewasn't done to solve the refugee crisis now, it could escalate to a level that demandedmuch morein the future.

"If we carry on like this, it will only continue, and we'll see more people trying to make the desperate journeys which killed at least 5,000 people in the Mediterranean last year," Mr Simmons added.

"The UK could and should be doing an awful lot more to allow family reunification of people who already here to be joined by refugees fleeing from the conflicts elsewhere.

"It is absurd to think this country could not do significantly more, and if we don't do significantly more now, we're only going to find that the escalation of these crises demand much more of us well into the future."

Amid itscondemnation ofthe global response to the refugee crisis, the report commended the

actions of some people in taking actions to help refugees and

affirm humanity and the

fundamental dignity

of others.

Mr Simmons said those in power must endeavour to recognise this."Governments also need to recognise that while there are members of the public who have responded in appalling ways and are driven by horrible rhetoric, there are also large numbers of the public who have responded in clearly compassionate humanitarian ways to go out and provide support elsewhere," he said.


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The Independent - Daily Edition


May 8, 2017 Monday  
First Edition


AGAINST THE TIDE;
An injured Syrian who swam from Turkey to Greece has set up his own charity putting refugees at the forefront of the migrant crisis response. Bethan McKernan reports


BYLINE: BETHAN MCKERNAN


SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 30


LENGTH: 959 words


"I know what it's like to make a new life in another country. To have no one. I am the best placed person to help," Omar Alshakal says, speaking carefully in English, a language he is almost fluent in despite only beginning to learn last year.

Alshakal is 23, but says he feels like he's 100. It's not surprising: like every Syrian forced to flee their home during the last six years of civil war, he has witnessed horrors both in Syria and on the refugee trail that eventually took him to Greece. Speaking via a Skype video call, Alshakal is illuminated by bars of bright spring Mediterranean sunlight that pierce through the smoke of his cigarettes. In the background, birds are singing. 

Like everyone who works on the frontlines of the refugee crisis on the island of Lesbos, he says the natural beauty is at odds with the suffering and misery of the hundreds of thousands of people who have braved the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea from Turkey since 2014. And while every illegal crossing is dangerous, Alshakal faced even more hazards than most: he swam to Greece, despite a crippling leg injury.

Born and raised in DeirEzzour, now subject to a siege by Isis, Alshakal left Syria for Lebanon in 2010, where he worked as a lifeguard. When the civil war broke out he returned home to his family, and was arrested for his activism against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the early days of the uprising. "I saw horrible things in prison. They beat prisoners until they died," he said. "When I got out after six weeks I did not care if I lived or died."

Alshakal began volunteering as an ambulance driver on his release. In May 2013, an air strike hit the road just behind his vehicle, which was already crammed with six injured people. The blast killed everyone else on board. While Alshakal's life was spared, the incident left him in a wheelchair with a serious shrapnel wound to his right leg.

He went to Turkey in search of adequate medical treatment, but couldn't find what he needed. "The doctor told me, go to Europe, go to Germany," he said. Eventually, Alshakal began to think: why not? Many others were starting to make the same journey at the mercy of smugglers in unseaworthy boats.

From Bodrum, on Turkey's coast, at just 10 kilometres (six miles) across the water, the Greek islands looked close enough to touch. So he decided to see if he could. "I'm a good swimmer, even with my bad leg. Maybe it was because I was young and stupid, but even with my leg, I thought I didn't have anything to lose to try to do it." Except his life? Alshakal shrugs. "I didn't think about it like that," he says.

The plan, once hatched, certainly didn't take long to execute. He and two friends went to buy snorkels, flippers, and a life jacket for the older member of their group. That night, they began the 14-hour swim from Turkey to Kalymnos. They were picked up by the Greek authorities just before they reached the shore: and as so many refugees find out when they finally make it to Europe, Alshakal's ordeal was far from over.

Over the next 18 months, he found himself sleeping rough on the streets of Athens, turned back from the Macedonian border multiple times, and when he eventually made it to Germany, his asylum application was temporarily suspended when he was picked up by police and accused of being a member of Isis. By early 2016, disillusioned with the hardship of life on a continent he thought held solutions, Alshakal decided to try and go home to Syria. He headed back to Greece.

Lesbos at that time was the epicentre of the refugee crisis; thousands of people a day were arriving on its shores before the EU's deal with Turkey to return refugees was implemented in March. "I spoke their language, I knew their pain, I knew what they were trying to find," Alshakal said. "I had been volunteering in Germany. I had to help here too."

Alshakal began using his lifeguarding skills again as a frontline responder for smugglers' boats in distress, and the more he helped, the stronger his belief that refugees should be leading the response became. "Some NGOs, you don't know how the money gets used, you disagree with how they do things. I wanted us to be able to help ourselves," he said. He filed the papers to start his own charity at the beginning of this year. Two months later, "Refugee 4 Refugees" is getting off the ground, galvanising fellow refugees to collect clothes and toys for Syrians in Greece as well as those in Middle East refugee camps, run kitchen projects on the island, and fundraise for a rough-terrain vehicle to assist boat landings on Lesbos.

"Omar is a pretty exceptional young man," Jude Bennett, the managing director of search and rescue team Refugee Rescue said. The two are friends after meeting in Skala last year. "All the locals and volunteers know who he is. With few resources he has already done projects such as providing food for refugees on the Syrian border. In Lesbos he has rescued many people as they land on the shore. "Now he has set up Refugee 4 Refugees to help [give refugees] work that gives a meaning to life now that they are stuck in camps on the island??? It makes a simple but real difference to refugees' everyday lives."

"More and more refugees, and especially Syrians, come to help me all the time??? they want to take an active role, not just be victims," Alshakal said. The 23-year-old doesn't know what the future holds: he has finally had proper medical care for his leg, but his Greek visa expires in 2018, and most of his family are now in Damascus. "I will keep doing what I'm doing here until someone stops me," he said. "But really, still, I just want to be able to go home. That is what all of us want and what I think many people in Europe still don't understand."


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FinancialWire


January 27, 2017 Friday


Amid hate speech, negative media spin 'real stories' of refugees and migrants must be told - UN official


LENGTH: 667 words


With hate speech and rhetoric against migrants and refugees on the rise in various parts of the world, and the increased role of media in shaping perceptions towards them, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) today co-sponsored with the European Union (EU) a symposium drawing attention to this growing challenge and explore efforts to combat it. 



"2016 has been an elections year in many countries. Media, for better or for worse, was used as a tool shaping people's perceptions around issues and swaying their votes accordingly," Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the High Representative for the UNAOC, said in his remarks at the symposium.

Noting that the refugees and migrants crisis featured prominently in the campaigns and public discussions, he added: "[While] we noted solidarity towards refugees, we also witnessed a surge of xenophobic hate speech."

Further, noting that mass exodus of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Libya and other countries into Europe resulted in "fuelling fears, prejudices and even hatred against those who are perceived as 'the other' by local populations," he expressed that such distorted perceptions have also led to violent reactions within host societies on some occasions.

With this is mind, he noted that the UN global campaign against racism and xenophobia, 'Together: respect, safety and dignity for all,' aims to change negative perceptions and attitudes towards refugees and migrants, and to strengthen the social contract between these populations and host communities.

Amid media distortion, 'we will do our utmost to tell the real stories of refugees'

Speaking to UN News ahead of the symposium, Mr. Al-Nasser expressed concern that migrants and refugees are inaccurately portrayed as an economic drain or a strain on public benefits, even though UN Member States have recognized the positive contribution of migrants to inclusive growth and sustainable development, for example through the 2030 Agenda and the New York Declaration on refugees and migrants adopted at a UN summit last year.

He, however, added that "migrants' positive contribution to societies is not acknowledged and rarely understood by host communities."

Underlining the importance of media, and in particular social media, which can influence perceptions either way, Mr. Al-Nasser said that despite progressive policies defended by some European leaders, refugees continue to be portrayed by some in the media as "potential terrorists" and "threats to national security".

"Social media provides a wide and open platform for hate speech, facilitating the rapid spread of negative narratives and ideas online," he added, noting that this environment has created a heightened sense of fear and mistrust in host communities towards migrants and refugees around the world, resulting in adverse impact on their rights and freedoms.

"But we will do our utmost to tell the real stories of refugees, in order to protect communities' interests and safeguard the rights of each individual. I think a balance must be found that protects the freedom of expression as well as the rights of migrants as human beings with human rights," the High Representative stated.

Turning to civil society, Mr. Al-Nasser called on the international community to acknowledge the role of civic actors and groups in formulating public policies aimed at curbing the spread of hate speech, and influencing public attitudes towards restricting the use of hate speech in media, including through policy recommendations.

The symposium was organized jointly by UNAOC and the EU in the Belgian capital, Brussels, under the UNAOC's #SpreadNoHate initiative.

The Alliance was established in 2005 to work towards a more peaceful, more socially inclusive world, by building mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious identities, and highlighting the will of the world's majority to reject extremism and embrace diversity.



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The Guardian(London)


June 26, 2017 Monday 11:02 AM GMT 


Manus Island refugee 'needs medical treatment in Australia' after alleged knife attack;
Refugee who lives in the immigration detention centre suffered serious injuries when he was allegedly robbed by locals, advocates say · WARNING: Graphic images below


BYLINE: Helen Davidson


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 631 words


A man who was allegedly attacked with knives during a robbery on Manus Island last week needs to be brought to Australia for medical treatment, advocates have said.

The man, a refugee living at the Australian-run immigration detention centre, suffered serious injuries on Wednesday morning when he was allegedly robbed by some locals, according to the Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani.

Another man was also robbed at knife-point the same day, and two others were robbed just last month. All four are living in the open detention centre. 

"This man was walking in the town and then some men held a knife to his body and asked for his belongings," Boochani said. "When the refugee refused to give his phone to them they attacked his hand with the knife very seriously."

Related: This is Manus Island. My prison. My torture. My humiliation | Behrouz Bouchani

Photographs purported to be of the man's injuries show large deep gashes to his arms.

According to advocates, the man has since been flown to Port Moresby for treatment, but they called for him to be brought to Australia to see a specialist surgeon.

Boochani said the other three men were uninjured, but the four incidents were part of an increasing problem with violence in the community and a lack of protection for refugees. 

"The Lorengau town has a small population, but the Australian government is trying to settle people there by force even though Manusian people are afraid of having 800 strange men in their community," said Boochani.

"If anything bad happens to the refugees Australia is responsible."

The Papua New Guinea police regional commander, David Yapu, told Guardian Australia he had not received a report of such an attack.

Boochani suggested many refugees and asylum seekers had stopped reporting incidents to police because they didn't think anything would be done.

Around 80 additional police officers have been stationed on Manus recently, due to the PNG national election.

Tensions in the region have been high, with a number of reported attacks on refugees and asylum seekers by locals, and some on locals by asylum seekers or refugees.

Nine people were injured when navy personnel on a "drunken rampage" opened fire on the processing centre on Good Friday.

The human rights lawyer George Newhouse said the alleged attacks were "extremely worrying" as detainees are moved out of the processing centre ahead of its closure in October. The centre has been partially closed, including some accommodation blocks and gym areas.

Non-refugees in Mike compound have been told to "make space" for refugees moving in from Foxtrot compound.

Related: Australian government pays heavy penalty for Manus mistreatment | Richard Ackland

Refugees are able to settle in the community or move into the East Lorengau transit centre, which is being expanded. However there are still concerns it will not be big enough and that refugees are not safe there.

"It's a shocking irony that people feel safer in detention that they do outside," said Newhouse. "What does that tell you about the conditions on Manus?"

Earlier this month the Australian government agreed to pay more than $70m to nearly 2,000 men who had been held on Manus, in compensation for illegally detaining them in dangerous conditions.

Newhouse said the Australian government needed to find an alternate place to keep people in the long-term.

"Assuming they aren't going to be brought to Australia, the Australian government is seeking to abandon these vulnerable people in the community on Manus Island," he said.

"As I see it the [short-term] solution is to keep the detention centre open so they can maintain the physical safety of those who don't go to the USA."

The immigration department said the incident was a matter for the PNG government.


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:05 PM GMT 


Hypocrites? How UN branded Australia's OWN tough immigration laws as a breach of human rights 


BYLINE: DAVE BURKE FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 783 words



Tough laws in Australia, which force migrants who arrive by boat into offshore detention centers, have been labelled 'cruel, inhuman and degrading' by the UN. 

Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull reportedly clashed with Donald Trump, in particular over what POTUS labelled a 'dumb' refugee deal made between the two nations under Barack Obama, as the pair spoke as leaders for the first time.

Yet while the Republican's hard-line immigration policies has drawn criticism, Australia's own system has been likened to 'open-air prisons that have increasingly eroded the human rights' of migrants.

Trump reportedly fell out with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull over a deal made with the Obama administration, which will see 1,250 refugees currently in centers in Nauru and Manus Island accepted into the US.

Under the US-Australia agreement, which was reached in November, Australia would accept hundreds of refugees from South America who are currently in centers in Costa Rica.

WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIA-US REFUGEE DEAL?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

The same month as the deal was made, UN investigator Francois Crepeau visited the detention center on the island of Nauru, where he described conditions as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.

Mr Crepeau said Australia's policies 'have increasingly eroded the human rights of migrants in contravention of its international human rights and humanitarian obligations'.

He continued: 'Australia would vehemently protest if its citizens were treated like this by other counties and especially if Australian children were treated like this.'

Amnesty International said in October that the immigration center was an 'open-air prison'.  

Offshore detention in Australia has been in place since 2001, and in 2013 Australia's mainland was excluded from its migration zone for people who arrive by boat.

Now migrants who arrive on Australian shores by sea are immediately sent to the island of Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

They stay in detention facilities while their applications to be accepted into Australia are processed. 

Although 90 per cent are ruled to have valid claims, they are not allowed to settle in the Australian mainland, instead being allowed to stay in Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

The policy has come under heavy fire, with conditions in the camp branded 'inhuman' by a UN inspector in November.

Supporters claim it deters migrants from arriving in dangerous vessels, and ensures refugees enter the country through proper channels.

In 2015 Australia agreed to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria. 

The previous year violence had erupted at a protest at the detention center on Manus Island, and a 23-year-old Iranian man was killed.

Turnbull has previously stated that Australians cannot be 'misty-eyed' about immigration, saying: 'We must have secure borders and we do and we will, and they will remain so, as long as I am the prime minister of this country.'  

The US president is claimed to have hung up on his Australian counterpart Turnbull 25 minutes into the conversation after furiously telling him: 'I don't want these people.'

He wrote on Twitter yesterday: 'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!'

Trump's own record on accepting refugees has sparked protests all over the world after he barred people from seven predominantly Muslim countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - from entering the US for 90 days.

He also imposed a 120 day refugee ban, and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely. 


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 3, 2017 Friday 7:03 PM GMT 


Emma Thompson urges MPs to save more child refugees like her adopted son;
'Members of Parliament, you are in the position to save many more than 350 of these children and to put them on a road to a brighter future,' writes Thompson


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 688 words


Actress Emma Thompson has written a letter to MPs expressing her disappointment at the "shockingly low" number of refugee children the UK has taken from Europe under the Dubs amendment, and urging them to take action.

In a highly personal message,

the Oscar winner describes the joys of bringing up her adopted son, Tindyebwa Agaba, who she took in as a child refugee 14 years ago. She writes that he 

has brought "nothing but joy and the deepest possible rewards" to her family, and urges many more like him be helped in this way.

But

Thompson warns that

following

the Government's decision to close the Dubs

amendment -

one

of the few legal passages for unaccompanied minors

to the UK -

an

increasing number of these children are instead putting themselves at risk as they embark on reaching the country through illegal routes.

Read more

Number of child refugees trying to reach Europe doubles in a year

Child refugees in France record desparate plea to Theresa May

May closes the door on child refugees but keeps it open for Trump

Emma Thompson says Britain is 'a cake-filled misery-laden grey old

Describing her experience raising Tindyebwa, the

Love Actually

star writes: "Fourteen years ago I met one of these children at the Refugee Council. He was a traumatised 16-year old Rwandan refugee who had seen untold suffering as a child soldier and who only needed help and support from a loving group of people to flourish into the extraordinary, empathic and talented member of our family he is today

.

"Our family have experienced nothing but joy and reaped the deepest possible rewards from witnessing the development and happiness of the refugee who became our brave and kind son. Those we choose to help often end up helping us in ways we cannot imagine.

"I am certain there are many like him out there that we can help to become part of other family or community groups where they could grow into active and fulfilled citizens with much to offer."

Thompson, who has long been an advocate for helping unaccompanied minors arriving in Europe, urges MPs in the letter to consider an amendment to the Children's Bill being put forward for parliamentary consideration next week, which has the aim of providing a passage for child refugees to reach the UK.

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

The amendment, which is being put forward in Parliament by Conservative MP Heidi Allen on 7 March, will ask that local authorities identify their capacity to resettle unaccompanied refugee children and to report this to the Secretary of State annually.

In the letter, Thompson rejects claims made by Home Secretary Amber Rudd that the Dubs amendment acted as a "pull" for more unaccompanied refugee children to make dangerous journeys to Calais, instead turning it on its head to say "the opposite is true".

"Children do not fling themselves into the dangerous unknown for anything but the most severe reasons of survival," Thompson says.

"Hundreds of teenagers, some as young as 13, are now attempting to survive in the freezing snows of Northern France.

"Since the eviction of the Calais camp, they are still trying to reach the UK, putting their lives in the hands of people smugglers, climbing into refrigerated lorries - because without safe and legal routes, they feel that this is their only option.

"They deserve our help and above all, our compassion. How can we turn our backs on them simply because of the largely unsubstantiated fear that others might come?"

Finishing her letter, Thompson makes an appealto MPs to use their position to provide safety for more children, saying:"Members of Parliament, you are in the position to save many more than 350 of these children and to put them on a road to a brighter future."

Ahead of the parliamentary vote, Josie Naughton of Help Refugees told

The Independent

: "The non binding vote in parliament last week (254-1) in favour of child refugees highlighted MPs coming together across party lines to support bringing vulnerable unaccompanied minors to the UK.

"This is a humanitarian issue and not a political one. We hope the amendment vote next week reflects that."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 6, 2017 Monday 5:45 PM GMT 


Tory MP's 'callous' reply to voter who discovered abandoned lorry full of starving child refugees;
Pauline Latham had previously told people to 'stop being so sentimental' about child refugees


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:4


LENGTH: 711 words


An MP who caused a storm after she said people should "stop being so sentimental" about child refugees has reignited the row after she poured scorn on a voter who discovered a lorry full of desperate children abandoned in a Kent carpark.

Daniel Grimwood, 40, wrote to Tory MP Pauline Latham after he heard her speech rejecting the need to give sanctuary to child refugees. He recounted a story of how he and his friends had heard banging coming from within a lorry while they were out jogging, leading them to alert the police. 

"The cargo comprised two very young screaming babies, several toddlers and two adults," he wrote to the MP in correspondence seen by

The Independent.

Read more

Tory MP says people should 'stop being so sentimental' about refugees

"Had we not been there some or all of these children would almost certainly have died in a parking lot on our shores.

"Against this backdrop I find your speech callous and chilling in its inhumanity. It is not sentimental to hope vulnerable babies can be saved from suffocation and freezing in the back of a lorry on our shores, for shame! I am repulsed."

Ms Latham fired back a one-line message from her iPad in reply: "Maybe you will be contacting your local authority and offering to foster or adopt these poor trafficked children. Sent from my iPad".

Speaking to

The Independent

after the event Mr Grimwood characterised the response as "flippant", "callous", and "sort of sarcastic, which I just thought was in very, very poor taste".

He added: "The first thing that shocked me about it really was the extreme rudeness of it."

Read more

Amber Rudd says child refugee criticism is 'fake news'

UK closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m profit for smugglers'

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

May closes the door on child refugees but keeps it open for Trump

Nicky Morgan warns Tories risk 'nasty party' image over child refugees

May given 50,000-strong petition condemning end of refugee scheme

When contacted about the correspondence Ms Latham said in a statement: "I have spoken at great length about the desperate situation facing refugees. Families face a terrible situation and I have made it clear that other countries, alongside the UK, should play their part in helping people in such difficult circumstances."

The Mid-Derbyshire MP admitted to a "poor choice of words" last month and said she had been "misconstrued" by colleagues after she said it was best for Syrian child refugees to be kept in the Middle East and that those who wanted to offer them sanctuary were being "sentimental".

She made the original comments while defending the Government in a House of Commons debate about ministers' early closing down on the Dubs Scheme. The scheme had been widely expected to take 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees but the Government cut it short at just 350 after bad publicity in right-wing newspapers.

On Tuesday the House of Commons is set to vote on an amendment that could potentially re-open the scheme, with a potential backbench Conservative rebellion on the cards.

Speaking to

The Independent

Mr Grimwood, who works as a concert pianist, recounted the episode, which he said happened just after the speech.

Tory MP says people should 'stop being so sentimental' about child refugees

"Some friends and I were running in an area where there were some lorries parked overnight. It's usually a very quiet area so there's nobody there, but we heard knocking inside coming from inside a lorry," he said.

"One of us called the police, and the police came and we saw from afar that the first two things that loaded out of the back were two screaming babies followed by several young children, and I think somebody said there were two adults as well.

The correspondence was described as 'callous'

"I was left with a thought that had we not actually been there on that particular night it's entirely possible that nobody would have been there and nobody would have heard them and you don't know - it's two babies, clearly very young babies as well - you wonder whether they would have died.

He continued: "The response to that struck me as being so incredibly callous."

The Conservative party press office directed

The Independent

to Ms Latham's office when approached for comment.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:18 PM GMT 


Theresa May repeatedly refuses to condemn Donald Trump's immigration ban;
'The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees,'Prime Minister says


BYLINE: Joe Watts, Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 793 words


Theresa May has repeatedly refused to condemn Donald Trump's ban on refugees and entry for citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations after meeting with Turkish leaders.

She was speaking just a day after meeting the new President in Washington, where the pair pledged their commitment to the "special relationship" between Britain and the US.

After agreeing a controversial £100 million fighter jet dealamid wide-ranging purges and security crackdowns following an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ms May held a joint press conference with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. 

When May met Trump - five key points from the leaders' press conference

Their talks were overshadowed by global debate over Mr Trump's executive order to ban Syrian refugees from entering the US indefinitely, halt all other asylum admissions for 120 days and suspendtravel visas for citizens of "countries of particular concern", including Syria, Iraq and other Muslim-majority nations.

Read more

Iraqi refugee targeted for helping US military detained at JFK airport

May agrees fighter jet deal with Erdogan despite human rights abuse

Most Isis victims Muslims despite Trump's plan for Christian refugees

Faisal Islam, the political editor of Sky News, asked Ms May whether she viewed it as an "action of the leader of the free world".

The Prime Minister replied that she was "very pleased" to have met Mr Trump in Washington, before evading the question by hailing Turkey's reception of millions of refugees and Britain's support for its government and other nations surrounding Syria.

When pressed for a second time for her view by another British journalist, Ms May continued: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees, the United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees."

Yvette Cooper, the former shadow Home Secretary, sent a letter to the Prime Minister urging her to echo condemnation from French and German ministers over the "deeply troubling"executive order.

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, said the Prime Minister's refusal to condemn Mr Trump's Muslim ban"is shocking, wrong and cannot stand".

He added: "It flies in the face of the values of people across Britain."

Mr Yildirim was more direct, calling the crisis a global issue and saying that UN members "cannot turn a blind eye to this issue and settle it by constructing walls".

"Nobody leaves their homes for nothing, they came here to save their lives and our doors were open...and we would do it again," he added. "If there is someone in need, you need to give them a helping hand to make sure they survive."

The Turkish Prime Minister brushed aside a question about wide-ranging human rights abuses in Turkey following the summer's attempted coup, seeing thousands of people arrested or forced to leave government and military posts amid reports of torture in state prisons.

Ms May also evaded questions on her ally's alleged abuses in the press conference, but had earlier urged Mr Erdogan to "sustain democracy by maintaining the rule of law and upholding its international human rights obligations".

Read more

Most Isis victims Muslims despite Trump's plan for Christian refugees

She and Mr Erdogan also discussed counter-terrorism, security, trade and migration in talks which stretched for an hour longer than scheduled.

Turkey has seen a succession of terror attacks by both Isis and Kurdish extremist groups since the start of the Syrian civil war, which caused millions of refugees to cross its border.

The US was among the countries resettling families from designated camps butMr Trump has suspended all refugee admissions to the US for 120 days as part of measures he claimed would "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

His order additionally banned Syrian refugees indefinitely until "significant changes" are made, and halved the annual cap on refugees to 50,000.

The President's executive order also suspends travel visas for anyone from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Syria, Iraq, Libya and Iran, from entering the US for at least 90 days.

He claimed his administration needed time to develop more stringent screening processes for refugees, immigrants and visitors.

It provoked outcry from the United Nations and NGOs working to stem the worst ever global refugee crisis, with more than 65 million people forced to flee their homes.

Amnesty International warned the move could have "catastrophic consequences", saying some of the worst fears about a Trump presidency were already being realised.

Salil Shetty, the group's secretary general, said: "These men, women and children are the victims of the same terror President Trump claims he wants to fight against. The irony beggars belief."


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The Engineer Online


June 30, 2017 Friday


Bath-led EPSRC project aims for more habitable refugee shelters


BYLINE: Helen Knight


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 676 words


EPSRC-funded project aims to improve living conditions for refugees The world is witnessing the worst refugee crisis ever recorded with levels of human displacement at their highest. Conflicts such as the Syrian civil war are leading to the creation of a new generation of refugee camps that are meant to provide temporary accommodation. Many people [...]

EPSRC-funded project aims to improve living conditions for refugees 

Levels of human displacement are at their highest

The world is witnessing the worst refugee crisis ever recorded with levels of human displacement at their highest.

Conflicts such as the Syrian civil war are leading to the creation of a new generation of refugee camps that are meant to provide temporary accommodation.

Many people remain in these camps for years, living in extreme climates ranging from 45 degrees Celsius to -10 degrees Celsius.

Now an international collaboration, led by researchers at Bath University, is hoping to improve living conditions for those residing in the camps, by designing better housing.

Conditions inside the shelters can be life-threatening, according to the university's Dr Dima Albadra, who is herself from Syria. "It can be unbearable, especially for children, so we are aiming to design something that would reduce these extremes of temperature to a healthy level," she said.

The three-year EPSRC-funded project, which also involves the Princess Sumaya University for Technology and the German Jordanian University, both in Jordan, and Mersin University in Turkey, will aim to design low cost and easy to construct shelters that are capable of moderating temperatures and ensuring the privacy of residents.

 Refugee camp

The researchers will conduct the largest ever global study into the thermal, air quality and social conditions in camps housing displaced people. They will investigate the views of camp occupants and aid agencies such as UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) on the housing, said lead investigator David Coley, professor of low carbon design at Bath University.

"We are going into the refugee camps, to talk to the population and find out what they are doing to keep cool," he said.

The researchers will investigate different materials for constructing and insulating the buildings. Materials such as clay bricks that have a high thermal mass, or the ability to absorb and store heat energy that can then be released at night when the temperature drops, will be among those considered, he said.

Kitchen in refugee dwelling

The researchers will use computer models to create different housing designs. By taking accurate temperature measurements from inside existing shelters, they will generate a validated model that can then be used to test different materials and building shapes, said Coley.

In this way the researchers plan to create 20 possible shelter designs. They will then build scale models of some of the designs, which will be tested in a thermal chamber to investigate how they hold up against cycles of different conditions such as heat, cold and humidity.

They will also be thermally tested at full scale in a climate chamber at the university's Building Research Park in Swindon.

"That allows us to make sure that over the course of a year they can withstand wind and weather," said Coley.

Proposed design for refugee dwelling

The most promising of the designs will be transported to camps in Jordan to test in local conditions, and to obtain the feedback of camp occupants and aid agencies.

As well as the Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps in Jordan, research will be conducted in camps in three other countries, chosen to offer as wide a range of climatic, cultural, social and political conditions as possible. These are likely to be the Mae La camp in Thailand, the Kilis camp in Turkey, and the Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania.

The researchers hope the project will result in a manual for aid agencies that explains the benefits of each shelter design, and provides guidance on construction and matching different designs with the local environment and culture.


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 9:54 PM GMT 


Theresa May refuses to condemn Donald Trump's refugee ban after being asked THREE times at press conference;
The Prime Minister dodged two questions about her view on the US President's widely-criticised move during a press conference today


BYLINE: By Andrew Woodcock


SECTION: NEWS,UK NEWS


LENGTH: 920 words


Theresa May has come under fire after failing to condemn Donald Trump's controversial ban on refugees entering the United States.

The Prime Minister dodged two questions about her view on the US President's widely-criticised move during a press conference today.

But later, when pressed by reporters at the event in Ankara, Turkey, she insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy on refugees. 

Her Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim, however, hit out at the ban, warning the US that building a wall would not solve the crisis.

Speaking at the joint conference, Mrs May told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States policy on refugees."

She added: "The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

The PM was immediately condemned by British politicians, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former leader Ed Miliband.

Donald Trump's Muslim ban: All you need to know about what US President's controversial announcement actually means

Mr Trump, who was inaugurated as the 45th US President on January 20, has barred all refugees from entering the country for four months.

However, he has blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

His order, signed on Friday afternoon, also imposes a 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations.

When asked about the changes made by the president at today's press conference, Mrs May focused on the action taken by the UK to help refugees.

Pressed a second time, the PM - who held talks with Mr Trump and was even pictured holding his hand in Washington on Friday - failed to answer.

US Vice President Mike Pence called Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'offensive and unconstitutional' just one year ago

She finally addressed the question when reporters shouted out "what about the US?"

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was among those who attacked Mrs May for refusing to condemn Mr Trump's refugee ban.

He said: "Theresa May has failed to criticise President Trump for turning away and banning refugees whose only crime is to believe in a different religion.

"Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand.

"The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on.

"Perhaps she feels in a weak position on Syrian refugees because her own record on this is so lamentable.

"We're taking names": Donald Trump's new UN ambassador warns US allies "back us or else"

"More likely it is because she is so desperate for a trade deal at any price after her decision to haul Britain out of the world's largest market that she will turn a blind eye to anything.

"At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal.

" They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way.

"If Theresa May would stay in the single market none of this humiliation would be necessary."

Mr Corbyn said the Prime Minister should have stood up for British values and condemned Mr Trump's actions.

He said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

Muslim travellers turned away from US after Donald Trump's ban as Google 'recalls overseas staff'

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

Mr Miliband, meanwhile, took to Twitter to express his shock.

He wrote: "PM's refusal to condemn Trump Muslim ban is shocking, wrong and cannot stand. It flies in the face of the values of people across Britain."

Former Tory Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi also tweeted her views, writing: "The moment we once again lost a little more moral authority.

"The hypocrisy of the debate on #Britishvalues becomes more stark by the day."

And Labour MP Yvette Cooper has written to the Prime Minister, calling for her to say if she raised concerns about Mr Trump's declarations about refugees during their talks, which took place on Holocaust Memorial Day.

She wrote: "I am writing to ask ... whether you or your Government have raised concern about the President's approach to refugees or to Muslims, and whether you or your ministers will now urge him to reconsider his position.

British PM Theresa May signs £100m fighter jets deal with Turkish President Erdogan during post-Brexit trade mission

"You will understand how important it is for people in the United Kingdom to know that when our Prime Minister talks on Holocaust Memorial Day about things we have in common with the President of the United States, you are not talking about or condoning in any way the deeply troubling measures that President Trump has introduced."

During her visit to Ankara, Mrs May called Turkey one of Britain's oldest friends.

Speaking to reporters at the presidential palace alongside President Tayyip Erdogan, she also signed a $125million (£100million) fighter jet deal with the country.


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FinancialWire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


On World Refugee Day, UN urges support, solidarity for record number of displaced people


LENGTH: 509 words


With a record 65.6 million people last year forcibly uprooted from their homes by violence and persecution, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today called on the international community to provide support and solidarity. 



"We reflect on the courage of those who fled and the compassion of those who welcome them," the Secretary-General said in his video message for World Refugee Day, marked annually on 20 June.

He noted that more people than ever in our lifetimes are fleeing war, disasters and persecution.

"Hardship, separation, death," Mr. Guterres said, recalling nightmare stories heard from refugees and displaced persons, whose number rose 300,000 since the end of 2015.

Conflicts have displaced 12 million Syrians, 7.7 million Colombians, 4.7 million Afghans and 4.2 million Iraqis, according to a report released yesterday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Despite the hardships of fleeing with nothing, "they never lose their dreams for their children or their desire to better our world," Mr. Guterres said. "They ask for little - only our support in their time of greatest need and our solidarity."

The UN chief said it is "so inspiring to see countries with the least doing the most for refugees."

According to the report, about 84 per cent of the people were in low- or middle-income countries as of end 2016. Of that figure, one in every three people, roughly 4.9 million people, were hosted by the least developed countries.

To mark the Day, Mr. Guterres, will hold a press conference in New York later today.

When we stand #WithRefugees, we also stand for respect and diversity for all

In his remarks, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the Day is also a moment to recognize those communities and people around the world who receive refugees and the internally displaced in their midst, offering them a safe place, and welcoming them in their societies.

In a world in which uncertainty often abounds; economic instability, political upheaval and violence close to home "can make us want to shut our eyes or close our doors. But fear and exclusion will not lead us to a better place - they can only lead to barriers, alienation and despair," he stressed.

"It's time to change this trajectory. And for the better," he stated, noting that in countless communities, including in the poorest countries that host the vast majority of the world's refugees, business people, faith communities, teachers, journalists and many more are joining together to provide refuge to the displaced and foster their inclusion in their societies.

"Inclusion requires opening our minds, hearts and communities to refugees. It requires a whole of society," Mr. Grandi underscored.

World Refugee Day is a moment to ask what each of us can do to overcome indifference or fear and embrace the idea of inclusion, "to welcome refugees to our own communities, and to counter narratives that would seek to exclude and marginalize refugees and other uprooted people."



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:33 AM GMT 


Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely;
Campaigners were left angry and distraught as details of the ban emerged without warning - causing chaos for many families


BYLINE: By Steve Robson


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1061 words


The brutal reality of Donald Trump's hardline stance on immigration came into force last night when he ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

The President also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to immigrants from seven mainly-Muslim nations including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days. 

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said earlier on Friday at the Pentagon.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

tweet

tweet2

tweet3

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's Mexico wall

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: "We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."


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MailOnline


June 29, 2017 Thursday 8:07 PM GMT 


Trump's travel ban goes into effect: Grandparents, grandchildren and fiancés of U.S. residents will not be allowed to enter the country from six Muslim-majority nations


BYLINE: REUTERS


SECTION: NEWS; Version:4


LENGTH: 812 words



Grandparents, grandchildren and fiancés of people in the United States will be barred from getting U.S. visas under President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban against citizens of six Muslim-majority countries taking effect on Thursday, U.S. officials said. 

The administration also narrowly interpreted which refugees will be allowed into the country, saying that links with refugee resettlement agencies would not be enough to win them admittance, likely sharply limiting the number of refugees allowed entry in coming months.

The Trump administration's temporary travel ban will go into effect at 8pm Eastern Time, but in a scaled-back form that still allows in some travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, following a Supreme Court order on Monday.

The Supreme Court exempted travelers and refugees with a 'bona fide relationship' with a person or entity in the United States from the ban, which Trump signed in March and which opponents have said is discriminatory.

Refugee resettlement agencies had expected that their formal links with refugees expecting to come to the United States would qualify as 'bona fide.' But U.S. officials said on Thursday that for now, that sort of relationship was not enough to qualify refugees for entry.

The administration's decision likely means that few refugees beyond a 50,000-cap set by Trump will be allowed into the country this year. A U.S. official said that as of Wednesday evening, 49,009 refugees had been allowed into the country this fiscal year. The State Department said refugees scheduled to arrive through July 6 could still enter.

The U.S. government expects 'things to run smoothly' and 'business as usual' at U.S. ports of entry, a senior U.S. official told reporters.

Trump first announced a temporary travel ban on January 27, calling it a counterterrorism measure to allow time to develop better security vetting. The order caused chaos at airports as officials scrambled to enforce it and was blocked by federal courts, with opponents arguing the measure discriminated against Muslims and that there was no security rationale for it.

A revised version of the ban, issued on March 6, was also halted by courts.

In its decision on Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the ban, which bars people from the designated six countries for 90 days and refugees for 120 days, to go partially into effect until the top court can take up the case during its next term starting in October.

The State Department guidance on the ban, distributed to all U.S. diplomatic posts on Wednesday evening and obtained by Reuters, fleshed out the Supreme Court's ruling about people who have a 'bona fide' relationship with an individual or entity in the United States.

It defined a close familial relationship as being a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, including step-siblings and other step-family relations.

'Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-laws and sisters-in-law, fiancés, and any other "extended" family members,' are not considered close family, according to the cable.

Asked how barring grandparents or grandchildren makes the United States safer, a senior U.S. official did not directly answer, instead pointing to Trump's guidance to pause 'certain travel while we review our security posture.'

The guidelines also said that workers with an offer of employment from a company in the United States or a lecturer addressing U.S. audiences would be exempt from the ban, but someone who simply made a hotel reservation would not be considered as having a bona fide relationship.

Immigration lawyers expressed surprise and dismay that fiancés, grandparents and grandchildren would not qualify as close family.

Refugee groups also rejected as too narrow the administration's interpretation of the Supreme Court order.

'We're surprised by this interpretation, we thought it would be more favorable, it's not and we're going to question it,' said Chris George, executive director of IRIS - Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, a refugee resettlement agency.


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Mondaq Business Briefing


January 30, 2017 Monday


Canada: Canada's Needs Stronger Response To Trump's US Immigration Ban


BYLINE: Colin Singer


LENGTH: 513 words


President Donald Trump's executive order on refugees is a shameful act by the United States government on many fronts.

Issued on January 27, 2017 and without forewarning, it mandates an immediate four-month suspension to America's refugee program, banning all refugees to the US, allowing the government time to re-assess how refugees are vetted. In particular, it prevents entry of Syrian nationals as refugees, until such time as President Trump determines sufficient changes have been made to the United States Refugee Admissions Program. 

The order, entitled "Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States," coincides with the anniversary of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the UN as the date for member nations to honor the memory of Holocaust victims. Resolution 60/7 commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jews, as well as another 500,000 individuals, by the Nazi regime. President Trump's order hearkens back to the turning away of the SS St. Louis, a ship of Jewish refugees refused entry into the U.S. in 1939, many of whom later perished in the Holocaust.

It effectively prevents the entry of scores of refugees, including those who arrived at U.S. airports, were in transit to the U.S., or were preparing to board flights to the country, including Syrian refugees, and Iraqis who provided aid to U.S. forces, and have already been vetted and approved under the previous administration. These are immigrant refugees, recognized by the United States, who are fleeing war-torn countries and hold valid visas for which they have undergone years of extensive screening and processing, including multiple layers of international background checks. These individuals could be forced to return to displacement camps while the government re-assesses its undefined policies.

The order also blocks entry into the United States for 90 days of citizens from seven predominantly-Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. None of these countries have had a citizen involved in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, raising questions about the order's effectiveness. Initially, even those with US Green Cards were included in the order, however the U.S. administration backed away from this in the face of mounting pressure. The executive order also cuts in half to 50,000 the number of refugees to be admitted to the U.S. in 2017.

To read this article in its entirety please click here

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The content of this article reflects the personal insight of Attorney Colin Singer and needs no disclaimer


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 8:52 AM GMT 


Theresa May facing possible defeat today over her axing of a scheme to rescue child refugees;
Up to 30 Tory MPs are poised to back an attempt to force the Government to take up offers from local councils eager to accept more unaccompanied children


BYLINE: Rob Merrick


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:1


LENGTH: 603 words


Conservative rebels have warned Theresa May she faces possible defeat today over her axing of a scheme to rescue child refugees and bring them to Britain.

Up to 30 Tory MPs are poised to back an attempt to force the Government to take up offers from local councils eager to accept more unaccompanied children fleeing conflicts.

There was uproar last month when the Home Office suddenly axed the so-called 'Dubs scheme' to bring in 3,000 refugees from Europe - when just 350 have arrived. 

Read more

Closing down Dubs amendment will increase child trafficking, warn MPs

Now MPs will vote today on a bid to ensure councils in England have been audited to identify whether they have spare capacity.

Ministers have been accused of ignoring evidence that town halls are willing to make thousands more places available, with the right funding.

Speaking with The Independent, Heidi Allen, the Conservative backbencher who has tabled the key amendment, said she was confident of success.

Nine fellow Tories had signed her amendment and a further 20 had indicated they supported her campaign - enough to defeat the Prime Minister.

"The refugee crisis does not end neatly at the end of this financial year so nor must our support for this humanitarian crisis," Ms Allen said.

"Since the Government announced it would close the scheme, many local authorities have stepped forward to say they were not consulted properly, have capacity and remain on stand by to help. We should take them up on their offers.

"There is strong support amongst our party, the wider House and across our country - this is the right thing to do."

Ms Allen and her supporters are attempting to amend the Children and Social Work Bill to place a statutory duty on councils to report back to ministers at least once a year.

Prominent former Conservative ministers including Nicky Morgan, Tim Loughton and Anna Soubry are expected to join the revolt.

Faith leaders and actors Vanessa Redgrave, Rhys Ifans and Toby Jones will lead a demonstration outside the Commons to increase pressure on the Government.

Announcing the refugee cap at 350 children - under the scheme inspired by Alf Dubs, a former refugee himself - the Home Office insisted there were no more spaces were available to accommodate them.

But freedom of information responses from dozens of UK councils found at least 368 more spaces available and potentially many more.

In the Commons yesterday, Home Office minister Robert Goodwill sparked anger when he told MPs he did "recognise the figures".

"I suspect that some of the methodology behind them will not bear too much scrutiny," Mr Goodwill claimed.

Read more

Tory MP's 'callous' reply to voter who found lorry of child refugees

Number of child refugees trying to reach Europe doubles in a year

Amber Rudd says child refugee criticism is 'fake news'

Child refugees in France record desparate plea to Theresa May

Ms Allen praised the Government's record in the Syrian region as "outstanding", with £2.3bn committed and the promise to resettle 23,000 refugees.

But she said: "The refugee crisis has also affected Europe and thousands of vulnerable unaccompanied refugee children remain in Italy and Greece.

"These countries are overwhelmed and we have a moral and neighbourly duty to help, not least because there are local authorities in the UK who have said they still have capacity.

"Without safe and legal routes, children choose illegal trafficked routes and are already making their way back to Northern France.

"If we do not help downstream, it will become a huge problem in Calais and Dunkirk once again - the camps are already starting to rise from the ashes."


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The Guardian


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 6:08 AM GMT 


How could 'extreme vetting' apply to refugees from Australia's camps?;
US homeland security chief suggests phone and internet records could be included in checks on refugees such as any coming from Nauru and Manus


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 700 words


Donald Trump's new homeland security chief has given some clues over the "extreme vetting" procedure proposed for all refugees seeking protection in the US, that will apply to those resettled from the Australian-run offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

Trump promised "extreme vetting" during his run for the presidency, and Trump used the phrase again to announce his controversial orders including a halt to the Syrian refugee program, a 120-day pause on all refugee admissions, and blocking entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries.  

Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed on Tuesday that for any refugees accepted for resettlement from Australia's offshore detention islands "there will be extreme vetting applied to all of them as part and parcel of the deal".

Related: Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US

Refugees coming to the US already face extensive background, security, and health checks, which involves collecting identity documents, biographical information, and biometric data, such as fingerprints and, for some nationalities such as Syrian, iris scans.

Resettlement assistance centres, contracted by the US state department, collate a refugee applicant's information for a security clearance process and interview with US citizenship and immigration services.

The state department checks names against a "watch list" and the national counterterrorism centre conducts inter-agency checks on applicants in certain cohorts, such a men of combat age. Both agencies also search for new information that might have become known since the application was lodged.

If a refugee's application is approved by the state department, the applicant's fingerprints are screened by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the defence department, before the applicant is then required to undergo medical tests for any communicable diseases, according to information provided by the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

The entire process typically takes between 18 and 24 months.

The US issued 10.8 million visitor visas in 2015, and granted approval to more than 531,000 immigrants to enter the US.

Three million people were denied entry to the US. Fewer than 1,000 of those were on terrorism-related grounds, government statistics show.

The new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly, outlined some of the additional new measures being considered as part of extreme vetting, including the monitoring of social media and internet use.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Kelly said that while his department was still evaluating what additional checks to include, it was considering "an accounting of what websites they visit, [and] telephone contact information so that we can see who they're talking to".

An applicant's social media use could also be part of any security check.

"We have to be convinced that people that come here, that there's a reasonable expectation that we all know who they are and what they're coming here for and what their backgrounds are," he said.

Asked about what he understood "extreme vetting" to mean, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was entirely a matter for US authorities.

Related: Is Trump's 'extreme vetting' immigration order unconstitutional?

"The United States government determines who goes into the United States ... and they will do their own extremely rigorous vetting of people that are the subject, or potentially the subject, of the agreement."

The US deal is not the first international arrangement Australia has struck in an attempt to resettle refugees from its offshore processing camps in a third country.

Its $55m "Cambodia Solution" was condemned as a costly and unethical failure that sent refugees to a developing country, riven by corruption and violence, and which was ill-equipped to assist refugees.

Australia paid $40m to Cambodia - as well as a commitment for up to $15m in resettlement assistance - to resettle refugees held on Nauru in that country.

But only five refugees agreed to be resettled, and only one remains in the country. Efforts to encourage more to move there have essentially ceased.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Protests at JFK after 12 travelers are held overnight in confusion at Trump immigration ban - including Iraqi who worked as a U.S. army translator for ten years


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1784 words



Demonstrators held a massive protest at New York City's JFK airport throughout Saturday after 12 refugees were detained following Donald Trump's immigration ban.

The group was held after flying to the United States following the president's executive order, banning all refugees and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. 

One of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America. 

The 53-year-old walked free from detention on Saturday afternoon after arriving in America on a flight from Istanbul the night before. Eleven people are still being detained. 

Scroll down for video 

Eleven refugees remained held in New York City's JFK on Saturday. Cabs at the airport went on strike for an hour from 6 pm to 7 pm to protest against the ban.

Travelers reported that police stopped allowing people without plane tickets onto the Air Train, which goes to the airport terminals, during the evening. 

Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release, as a crowd of supporters cheered him on. 

'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside the airport.

'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom... America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.' 

Asked what he thought of Trump he said: 'I don't know. He's a president, I'm a normal person.' 

He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America. 

WHO EXACTLY IS BANNED FROM THE U.S? 

Any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen is now barred from entering the United States.

That covers legal permanent residents - green card holders - and visa-holders from those seven countries who were out of the United States after Friday, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the temporary ban. They cannot return to the U.S. for 90 days.

There's an exemption for immigrants and legal permanent residents whose entry is in the U.S. national interest, but it's unclear how that exemption will be applied.

Visa and green card holders already in the U.S. will be allowed to stay.

Customs and Border Protection is notifying airlines about passengers whose visas have been canceled or legal residents scheduled to fly back to the U.S. Airlines are being told to keep them off those flights.

Source: Associated Press 

Lawyers for Darweesh and another Iraqi who is still detained at JFK filed a lawsuit on Saturday morning in a bid to have them released. 

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them on Friday night and took their passports when they landed in New York.

Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi - who approved for a visa on January 11 - was flying to America to join his wife and son in Texas.

Eleven other refugees are still being held at JFK airport. Protesters gathered outside the airport on Saturday in anger over those being held in detention.

Cairo airport officials said seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world. 

It is not clear exactly how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4:30 pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It comes as Iran's foreign ministry suggested the country would limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation for Trump's suspension of immigration and visas.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday that said Iran will resort to 'counteraction' to Trump's executive order.

'Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals,' the statement read. 

'It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions.'

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the U.S. embassy. 

SYRIAN REFUGEE'S DREAM OF MOVING TO U.S. SHATTERED:

Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said. 

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order,  Bloomberg reports. 

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.' 


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telegraph.co.uk


April 27, 2017 Thursday 11:59 AM GMT 


German soldier 'posed as Syrian asylum-seeker to carry out terror attack and blame it on refugees'


BYLINE: By Justin Huggler


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 588 words


An officer in the German army who spent more than a year posing as a Syrian refugee has been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack.

The 28-year-old lieutenant, who has not been named under German privacy laws, was living a double life, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Police are believed to be working on the theory that the officer, who has a history of expressing anti-foreigner views, planned to carry out a "false flag" terror attack and blame it on refugees. 

No details of the suspected terror plot have been released.

The arrested man successfully posed as Syrian asylum-seeker despite the fact he is of German background and speaks no Arabic.

Afghan British Army interpreter fleeing Taliban is now a refugee in Germany 01:56

He spent some time living in an official refugee shelter and was paid benefits as an asylum-seeker.

"This is quite an unusual story," a spokesman for prosecutors in Frankfurt said. "It's more than strange. We will have to wait for the investigation to uncover his motives."

The officer first came to the authorities' attention in February, when he was arrested by Austrian police after being caught trying to hide a gun in a toilet at Vienna airport.

Although he was swiftly released, German police and the MAD military intelligence service began investigating him, and uncovered an extraordinary trail of evidence.

Germany's warm welcome for refugees and migrants cooling 01:23

To investigators' astonishment, they found that the lieutenant, who was posted to a joint Franco-German unit in France, was also living some of the time as a Syrian asylum-seeker at a refugee shelter in Germany.

He first presented himself as an asylum-seeker in December 2015, in the midst of the influx of more than 1 million migrants who flooded into the country under Angela Merkel's "open-door" refugee policy.

He was given a place to stay in a refugee shelter in the town of Giessen, near Frankfurt, and formally applied for asylum under a false name in January 2016.

Prosectors were at a loss to explain how he was able to register as a Syrian asylum-seeker despite the fact he speaks no Arabic and is not believed to be of Syrian origin. The authorities raised no suspicion at the time of his application.

He is believed to have continued living sporadically at a refugee shelter in the months that followed, dividing his time between there and the military base in France where he was posted.

Refugees applauded in Germany by locals 00:31

"Just because he was stationed in France does not mean that he had to stay there every day. He was able to move freely during his free time," a police spokesman said.

One theory being pursued by investigators is that he may have posed as a refugee to set up a false trail of evidence ahead of a terror attack. According to this theory, he would have deliberately left his fingerprints at the scene of an attack so they would lead back to the fake refugee.

A second man, a 24-year-old student from the officer's home town of Offenbach, has also been arrested in connection with the case. Prosecutors described him as an "accomplice", though they gave no details of his role in the alleged plot.

"We know from various voice recordings that both men had anti-foreigner views," the prosectors' spokesman said.

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BreakingNews.ie


January 31, 2017 Tuesday 10:37 PM GMT 


872 refugees to be allowed into US despite travel ban


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 614 words


A total of 872 refugees will be allowed into the United States this week despite a presidential order suspending the US refugees programme, the Trump administration said.

Kevin McAleenan, the acting head of Customs and Border Protection, said that the refugees were already travelling and stopping them would cause "undue hardship".

Their admission comes despite President Donald Trump's warnings that refugees like these, vetted under the Obama administration, were not adequately screened to ensure they are not potential terrorists. 

The refugee ban was part of an executive order signed by Mr Trump on Friday which has stoked outrage and protests.

Besides the 120-day ban for refugees, the order also bans entry to the United States for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries and indefinitely bars travel by Syrians to the US.

At a news briefing with Mr McAleenan, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the travel ban for the seven countries may be extended and other countries could also be added to the list.

"I would be less than honest if I told you that some of those countries that are currently on the list may not be taken off the list anytime soon," Mr Kelly said.

"They're countries that are in various states of collapse" and may not be able to verify that people applying to come to the United States are who they say they are, he added.

In his first briefing with reporters since he was confirmed, Mr Kelly defended Mr Trump's order and said its intention is to keep would-be terrorists out of the United States and not serve as a ban on Muslims.

Early in his campaign, Mr Trump had called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Mr Kelly said "the vast majority of the 1.7 billion Muslims that live on this planet, the vast majority of them have, all other things being equal, have access to the United States".

The retired Marine general also said the order was "not a travel ban" but a "temporary pause that allows us to better review the existing refugee and visa-vetting system".

White House spokesman Sean Spicer made that point too in his daily briefing to reporters.

However, Mr Trump referred to it as a "ban" in a tweet on Tuesday defending the decision not to provide advanced notice to travellers. Mr Spicer also called it a ban on Monday.

"If the ban were announced with a one-week notice, the 'bad' would rush into our country during that week," Mr Trump wrote. "A lot of bad 'dudes' out there!"

The roll-out of the order has been widely criticised, a point Mr McAlleenan conceded, saying communication among government agencies had "not been the best".

However, he said the refugees' waivers were being done in concert with the State Department.

He said the refugees would be processed through the end of the week.

According to guidance provided to some refugee aid agencies by the State Department, none of the refugees are from the seven countries singled out for an all-out travel ban.

Those countries are Syria, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya.

Mr Kelly denied reports that he had been out of the loop in the White House planning for the immigration restrictions.

He told reporters he looked at two drafts of the order before the Friday signing and that high-level government lawyers and agency officials were involved in drafting it.

He did not provide names of who was involved in the initial planning, but said the group included people from Mr Trump's transition team.

Mr Kelly also said he knew the order was coming because Mr Trump had long talked about it as a candidate.

People who know Mr Kelly, however, told The Associated Press that he was not aware of the details in the directive until around the time that Mr Trump signed it.

AP


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The Guardian


January 23, 2017 Monday 2:57 AM GMT 


US officials visit Manus Island as Australia's refugee deal stays on track;
US official says resettlement interviews will begin next month despite doubts about the scheme under Trump


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 896 words


The deal to resettle refugees from Australia's offshore detention islands to the US appears to be proceeding in the early days of the Trump administration, with US officials visiting Manus Island to speak to refugees.

A US official, accompanied by Australian immigration officers, visited the detention centre on Friday - just hours before Trump's inauguration - and told refugees that interviews for potential resettlement would begin next month.

US officials have already visited Nauru. 

Sources on Manus Island have told Guardian Australia the resettlement option would only be available for detainees who have been found to be refugees (under the refugees convention ). Those who have had a negative assessment on their protection claim would not be eligible for resettlement.

Related: Human Rights Watch report card gives Australia a fail for offshore detention

The Resettlement Support Centre East Asia has been contracted by the US state department to oversee the interview process. Refugees are expected to be interviewed at least twice and the entire process is expected to take between six and 12 months.

Detainees on Nauru - where families, unaccompanied women and children, as well as single men, have been sent - were believed to be set for resettlement before those on Manus, which is for single men only. Both detention centres have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN and other nations over systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained, including rapes, beatings and the murder of one asylum seeker by guards; child sexual abuse; chronic rates of self-harm and suicide; dangerous levels of sustained mental illness, harsh conditions and inadequate medical treatment.

A Rohingyan refugee from Myanmar, Imran Mohammad Fazal Hoque, told Guardian Australia from Manus the men on the island were hopeful about the proposed resettlement deal but past disappointments tempered their expectations.

"It is extremely hard to believe anything in this forsaken prison, as we have always been used as pawns in political games," he said.

"Although we have been told all of this, we will not believe anything until we see some kind of action. All we have is hope and we pray that we will be able to experience our freedom soon."

Fazal Hoque said the men held on Manus Island were frustrated by the uncertainty about their future.

In April last year the detention centre on Manus Island was ruled " illegal and unconstitutional " by Papua New Guinea's supreme court. However, the centre continues to operate, albeit with some minor cosmetic changes to the detention regimen, nearly 10 months later.

"It feels like we are kicked in our stomachs meanwhile we are expected to say 'thank you'," Fazal Hoque said. "We are tested every single day, however it is almost impossible for them to find a single mistake in us."

Fazal Hoque said he worried for the future of those who had received 'negative assessments' on the refugee status claim.

"I saw men today with negative notification who became like rock, no feelings, no voice whatsoever. They were just sitting on chairs in a corner, facing the anti-climb fences. It was so excruciatingly painful for me to see how these men were being drawn into a depressed world."

The Iranian refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani told Guardian Australia from Manus said no one seemed certain the resettlement deal would progress.

"They have played many different kind of political game on us during the past four years," he said. "So nobody trusts them, whatever they say. The biggest uncertainty is Trump. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection itself is also in doubt. Its seems like they themselves are not certain about many things."

Boochani said the possible 12-month wait for resettlement had left many depressed.

"We have already been in this prison for almost four years and now it's... more suffering for us to spend another year [waiting to know] whether we will be accepted by America," he said.

The vast majority of the people held in Australia's offshore detention regime have been found to have a valid claim to refugee status because they have demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution in their homelands and are legally owed protection.

Related: Human Rights Watch says Papua New Guinea has failed to protect women and children

The latest Australian government figures show that, on Manus Island, of 859 final determinations, 669 men have been granted refugee status, while 190 have been been given negative final determinations on their claim for protection.

On Nauru, of 1,200 refugee status determinations, 983 have been positive, and 217 negative.

In the US, several high-profile Republicans and supporters of the new president have said Trump's administration could abandon the Australian resettlement deal. Neither the president nor any members of his team have commented directly on the deal.

In September, at an international conference called by the former president Barack Obama to address global refugee flows, Australia committed to resettling refugees from camps in Costa Rica. Those central American refugees have mainly fled the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador devastated by gang and drug violence.

Guardian Australia has contacted the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for comment as well as the office of minister Peter Dutton.


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April 25, 2017 Tuesday


Over 11,000 DRCongo refugees seek refuge in Angola


LENGTH: 560 words


Text of report by DRCongo's UN-sponsored Radio Okapi website on 25 April

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday 20 April announced that over 11,000 Congolese have taken refuge in Angola following the peak in violence which affected Kasai provinces in the Democratic Republique of Congo (DRCongo). 

"Border points and villages situated in Angola have seen a surge in arrivals of refugees with more than 9,000 arriving so far in April," UNHCR spokesman, Babar Baloch, said during a press briefing in Geneva.

Violence and instability started in August in 2016 in Kasai following the death of a traditional chief in clashes with security forces and the situation deteriorated in the first three months of 2017. According to UNHCR, the brutal conflict in DRCongo's previously peaceful Kasai region has already displaced more than one million civilians within the country since it began in mid-2016. Those fleeing to Angola continue arriving in Dundo, the capital of north-east province of Luanda-Norte.

"The refugees reported fleeing attacks from militia groups, who are targeting police, military officials, and civilians who they believe are supporting or representing the government," Mr Baloch said. "After fleeing from fighting rebel and government forces, some refugees had to hide in the forest for several days before fleeing to Angola," he added stressing that the latter [refugees] are arriving in desperate conditions, without access to clean water, food or shelter.

The situation among children is dire, as many arriving malnourished and sick, suffering from diarrhoea, fever and malaria. Two children are reported to have already died from severe malnutrition. UNHCR is concerned for the fate of others suffering from worrying levels of food insecurity and illnesses.

"The new arrivals are terrified and still fear for their lives and mentioned they do not have any immediate plans to return home. Some parents have reportedly sent their children across the border, worrying they would be forcibly recruited by the militias if they had stayed in the DRCongo."

Aid coordination to Congolese refugees

The UN agency for refugees us currently coordinating refugee response with Angolan government, local authorities and partners on the ground.

"We are also negotiating with the Government for proper hosting sites as the current border locations are overcrowded and not suitable," said Mr Baloch.

The UNHCR is in the process of shipping family tents, kitchen sets, blankets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats and other essential relief items to the region.

"More aid is needed as refugees are forced to stay in makeshift buildings in the border villages," warned the spokesman. Angola's wet season reaches its peak in April and the UNHCR is especially concerned about the ongoing rains - which could further complicate the living conditions and health of the refugees, especially the most vulnerable such as women, children, the elderly and the disabled.

The UNHCR has welcome the Angolan government in keeping its borders open for the continued arrivals of refugees. "We hope that this gesture of goodwill will continue as the situation remains serious in the Kasai region of DRCongo," the UNHCR spokesman said who also stressed the importance of not returning people in need of protection to the DRCongo.

Source: Radio Okapi website, Kinshasa, in French 25 Apr 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 20, 2017 Monday 12:57 AM GMT 


Home Office set to review child refugee asylum claims in France;
U-turn came after up to 400 unaccompanied minors made their way back to the so-called Calais Jungle in recent weeks


BYLINE: Lucy Pasha-Robinson


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:1


LENGTH: 506 words


The Government has announced it will review asylum applications from child refugees in France, less than two weeks after its early closure of the Dubs programme.

The Home Office said it would reconsider cases of children "normally resident in the Calais camp", after it emerged up to 400 unaccompanied minors had made their way back to the so-called Jungle in recent weeks. 

Last year, it was widely thought the Government would take 3,000 lone children from European refugee camps after Lord Alfred Dubs forced the Government to accept an amendment on the matter when the Immigration Act passed through Parliament.

However the Home Office unexpectedly announced the scheme would end after 100 more children reached the UK, bringing total numbers to 350.

Read more

Refugee turned baroness calls on government to help child refugees 

Full list of MPs who voted against Dubs Amendment for child refugees

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

Council leaders condemn Government closure of child refugee scheme

A separate scheme to bring unaccompanied refugee children with direct family links to Britain under the Dublin convention was also closed.

Now the Home Office has confirmed it has agreed with French authorities to reconsider some of these Dublin cases.

France moved more than 6,000 migrants, many fleeing poverty and war in their homelands, from the Calais Jungle last October to reception centres around the country.

However,

child assessments seen by

The Independent

alleged several accommodation centres where unaccompanied minors were sent were not providing basic needs such as suitable food, security provisions and emotional support.

The early closure of the Dubs scheme was met with a furious backlash from senior figures and human rights campaigners, however the Government defended its decision arguing the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe.

"The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," Home Secretary Amber Rudd said.

Read more

May closes the door on child refugees but keeps it open for Trump

"The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach."

Ms Rudd also attributed the closure to a lack of local funding, a claimfuriously countered by several councils who said they had written to the Home Secretary to urge approval of more child asylum seekers.

A High Court challenge to the scheme's closure has been scheduled for early May.

The legal challenge, which is being brought by the charity Help Refugees, claims the consultation process with local authorities that led to the scheme's closure was "fundamentally flawed".

A Home Office spokesperson told T

he Independent

over 900 unaccompanied children had been transferred to the UK from Europe in 2016, including more than 750 from France as part of the UK's support for the Calais camp clearance.


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


February 14, 2017 Tuesday


Latvian paper views housing problems faced by asylum seekers


LENGTH: 1028 words


Text of report by Latvian newspaper Neatkariga on 9 February

[Commentary by Baiba Lulle: "Work First, Housing Later"]

The first year of the Maris Kucinskis government will end a few days from now, while a few days ago it was one year since Latvia accepted the first refugees as part of the European Union's quota programme. The previous government led by Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma from Unity was the one that agreed with the programme, but there is every reason to doubt that the government of any other politician, including Kucinskis, would have done anything else. True, the ZZS [Latvian Alliance of the Green Party and Farmers Union] was more critical about the process back then, but that was allowed by the fact that it was a coalition partner, not the leader of the coalition.

History of Issue 

Initially, each refugee who was transported to Latvia attracted a great deal of attention from the public and the media. All of the refugees were registered, characterizes and interviewed. People commented about them, but a few months later the level of attention diminished, even though the pace of accepting refugees increased. Over the course of the year, 207 asylum seekers were accepted in Latvia, and another 731 have to be accepted by September 17. Most of them are living at the asylum seeker centre in Mucenieki, and some of them would have to leave it after they are given status. Many leave not just the centre, but also Latvia, but the first travellers in Europe are gradually returning to this country because they understand that they will not receive work permits or subsidies if they have been registered and have been given asylum in Latvia.

It is hard for refugees to find a home. They can no longer live in the asylum seeker centre, but they also cannot afford to rent an apartment. We know of at least one woman who left Latvia, returned here, and ended up in a shelter. The secretary general of the provider of social mentoring services, the Latvian Red Cross, is Uldis Likops, and he has said that the subsidy of 139 euros for a refugee and a subsidy of 97 euros for other family member is not enough to rent a home. During the winter, that requires at least 500 euros, given all of the utility payments that must be paid. Here we must remember that the minimum wage in Latvia is 380 euros per month, and it is received by approximately 35,000 working people. There also some 75,000 unemployed people who cannot afford to pay 500 euros for an apartment in Riga. In its report about mentoring, the Red Cross wrote that a challenge is the inability to offer residences for clients, as is their dissatisfaction with "small subsidies and wage levels in Latvia." It is not just refugees who are dissatisfied with this, and they are not the only ones who are leaving Latvia.

Possible Fixes

Those who are responsible for accepting the refugees have said things and made proposals about legislative initiatives, and for the most part, this involves greater housing subsidies or the transfer of additional subsidies at a time when the refugees must make a down payment. This approach is all wrong. The down payment will not resolve the problem the next month. The fundamental problem here is not that subsidies are at a low level, but instead the fact that the refugees are unwilling or unable to work. This Catch 22 situation exists not just for refugees -- low subsidies, no possibility to rent an apartment, so they must leave, or they do not work, have no money, and cannot rent an apartment. That means that in addition to teaching basic Latvian to the refugees, there must be more attention not to subsidies or their amount, but instead on how to facilitate employment among asylum seekers.

There are no precise data about status recipients who have found work, though the State Employment Agency (NVA) has said that it has registered approximately 20 asylum seekers during the past year. Only two people who have been looking for work, and only four have found jobs with the help of the NVA, and three of them are still working. Welfare Minister Janis Reirs (Unity) has said that refugees are not at all interested in working in Latvia and are avoiding work because "for the most part they are economic refugees whose aim is to live in one of the wealthy countries of Europe, not Latvia."

Situation With Employment

If we look at help wanted ads on various Internet sites, we see that there is a search for endless workers for simple work in many sectors and many places in Latvia. These jobs would not require extensive language skills or highly qualified skills. All that is needed is the desire to work. The jobs are there, but there is no one who wants to take them. To help not just refugees, but other risk groups to find work, there have been proposals about a draft law on social enterprises that would receive tax discounts. Care must be taken in this regard, however, so as to avoid any crippling of competition or any attempt to create jobs that are not necessary for the market and are supported by the national budget. Perhaps social companies could serve as social blankets for people for some time, but first there must be an attempt to find people who will accept jobs in places where workers really are needed. Those who do not want to work, but instead want to join those who enjoy subsidies, will also not work for social enterprises.

The key to an apartment and other material goods is work, and that is where the process must start. The main thing is not an apartment, with dancing around the rules of declaring one's place of resident. A step in the right direction is the plan to amend the law on asylum to say that subsidies will be linked to registration with the NVA and regular visits to the agency. Mentors must devote greater effort, because the sum that has been given to them in terms of the refugee programme is not small -- 666,000 euros. They must be more purposeful in explaining the need to learn the Latvian language to find a job. Only then should they whine about the inability of refugees to stay in Latvia and to rent an apartment in the centre of Riga for 500 euros.

Source: Neatkariga in Latvian 1318 gmt 9 Feb 17


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Press Association Mediapoint


May 1, 2017 Monday 12:01 AM BST 


Advisory: First issued under embargo


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 671 words


PROJECT LAUNCHED TO DESIGN HOUSING FOR REFUGEE CAMPS FACING EXTREME TEMPERATURES

By Claire Hayhurst, Press Association

Researchers will today begin a three-year project to design housing for refugee camps in extreme climates where temperatures range from 45C to -10C.

The international team, led by the University of Bath, aim to improve living conditions for refugees by creating low-cost and easy-to-construct housing. 

Their 20 possible shelter designs will moderate extremes of temperature and ensure the privacy, comfort and dignity of residents.

The research will be the largest global study into thermal, air quality and social conditions in camps housing displaced people.

Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Jordan, the German Jordanian University and Mersin University in Turkey are collaborating in the work.

Those living in the refugee camps, as well as aid agencies, will be asked for their views on how housing and social care can be improved.

Dr Jason Hart, senior lecturer in the Anthropology of Development at the University of Bath, has worked with refugees in Jordan and the Middle East for 20 years.

``I have witnessed first hand the daily struggles of displaced people to lead dignified lives in difficult conditions, and decent housing can make an immense difference,'' Dr Hart said.

``I am therefore excited to collaborate with colleagues from the fields of architecture and civil engineering in a process of shelter design that meaningfully engages the views and aspirations of refugees themselves.''

A recent pilot study conducted by the research team found that shelter design can create specific problems for refugees, increasing the demands on humanitarian organisations.

Health can be undermined when poorly insulated shelters fail to moderate extremes of temperatures, while design that fails to meet privacy and security needs can harm psychosocial wellbeing.

The researchers will utilise building physics to inform the design of shelters, using novel combinations of conventional and non-conventional materials.

These will ensure that the shelters naturally stay warm in winter and cool in summer.

Of the 20 possible designs, six will be constructed in the UK to test construction times, and thermally tested in a climate chamber at the University of Bath.

The most promising of these designs will then be transported to Jordan to test in local conditions, with camp occupants and aid agencies providing feedback.

Refugee camps were originally seen as a short-term solution but many across the world exist for years and even decades.

The world is currently witnessing the highest levels of human displacement with conflicts such as in Syria leading to the creation of a new generation of refugee camps.

Professor David Coley, of the University of Bath, said: ``The extreme climates experienced by those living in refugee camps inspired me to propose this project which will truly push the boundaries of my research into low-energy building design.''

As well as Jordan, research will be conducted in refugee camps in three other countries selected to provide as wide a range of climatic, cultural, social and political conditions as possible.

The team currently envisage working in Thailand, Turkey and Tanzania.

They will also create a manual to explain the benefits of each shelter design, provide guidance on matching design with context and offer guidelines on construction.

Professor Abdallah Al-Zoubi, the vice president of Princess Sumaya University for Technology, said: ``Our involvement in the project represents a tiny bit of the greater efforts Jordan is exerting in hosting the unfortunate children of Syria who are actually facing extreme conditions living in the desert.

``We hope that the results and outcomes of the project will ease the suffering of refugees and lead to a dignified stay in Jordan before their final short journey back home.''

The project, entitled Healthy Housing for the Displaced, has received £1.5 million of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 9:29 AM GMT 


Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'means Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend ceremony';
Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film at the prestigious awards but there are now fears he won't be able to attend


BYLINE: By Anthony Bond


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1273 words


An Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar may be unable to attend the prestigious event after Donald Trump banned nationals from 7 Muslim countries from entering the US.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

However, President Trump last night announced that nationals from 7 Muslim countries will no longer be issued visas to enter America.

Fans of the renowned filmmaker - who won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation - now fear he will be unable to attend Hollywood's biggest night in February.

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country. 

ban

bans

President Trump last night ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

The President also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to nationals from six other mainly-Muslim nations including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

However, his move has caused outrage among many people and organisations.

moore

syria

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

tweet

tweet2

tweet3

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Trump signs executive order for tighter vetting

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's Mexico wall

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."

Have you been affected by Donald Trump's new rules for entering the US?

Call us free on 0800 282591 or emailwebnews@mirror.co.uk


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January 28, 2017 Saturday 9:29 AM GMT 


Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'means Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend ceremony';
Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film at the prestigious awards but there are now fears he won't be able to attend


BYLINE: By Anthony Bond


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1254 words


An Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar may be unable to attend the prestigious event after Donald Trump banned nationals from 7 Muslim countries from entering the US.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

However, President Trump last night announced that nationals from 7 Muslim countries will no longer be issued visas to enter America.

Fans of the renowned filmmaker - who won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation - now fear he will be unable to attend Hollywood's biggest night in February.

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country. 

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bans

Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-nominated smash hit The Salesman TRAILER

President Trump last night ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

The President also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to nationals from six other mainly-Muslim nations including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

However, his move has caused outrage among many people and organisations.

moore

syria

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

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That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's Mexico wall

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."


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The Western Mail


April 3, 2017 Monday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Ukip AM causes outrage with 'appalling' refugee comments


BYLINE: Martin Shipton


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 17


LENGTH: 679 words


AUKIP AM has caused a storm by suggesting refugees should only be allowed into the UK if they would otherwise be in imminent threat of death.

Gareth Bennett also said they should only come here as long as they haven't engaged in political or human rights activity in their home country or haven't passed through another country where they could have sought asylum.

The AM for South Wales Central sits on the National Assembly's Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee. 

He has written a one-man minority report disagreeing with the committee's main report on refugees in Wales, which has yet to be published.

In his report, Mr Bennett quotes approvingly from a column written in the Times by Matthew Parris, the journalist and former Conservative MP.

Under a heading "My Opinion", Mr Bennett states: "The committee's report, by seeking to extend provision in Wales not only to Syrian refugees, but to refugees arriving spontaneously, is not recognising the difficulties of establishing who are the genuine political migrants.

"The danger is that Wales will be complicit in encouraging more spontaneous arrivals in the UK, which the UK taxpayer will then have to pay for. This cannot be right."

Still under the heading "My Opinion", Mr Bennett goes on to quote a section from Parris' column in which the former MP suggests a severe tightening of the definition of persecution: "A reasonable fear of death, death alone, and death at the hands of the state or its servants should be the sole qualifier for political asylum.

"There should be no automatic right to bring family members. And the applicant must have taken all reasonable steps to mitigate persecution - such as, for example, keeping out of politics, and obeying the laws of their country on, for example, the status of women, homosexual activity or the public practice of a proscribed religion like Christianity."

The Rev Aled Edwards, who chairs the refugees' support group Displaced People in Action, said: "This is a truly shocking suggestion. It sounds as if to have any chance of being accepted as a refugee, you would have to be sentenced to death and somehow be magicked to the UK. It also seems you wouldn't qualify if you had been tortured and not killed.

"There is a robust definition of refugee status which has stood the test of time and which is accepted across the civilised world. Host countries decide whether to accept people as refugees according to due legal process and can insist on people leaving if their claim does not stand up to scrutiny."

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence.

A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

Article 1 of the Geneva Convention, as amended by the 1967 Protocol, defines a refugee as "a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country".

Joyce Watson, a Labour member of the committee which drew up the original report, said: "It is very disappointing that Gareth said nothing while this was being discussed in committee. This was a cross-party committee which was looking at a serious issue.

"Gareth has chosen to produce a Ukip report complete with Ukip branding."

An Assembly source said: "Gareth sat through the entire committee investigation hardly saying a word. We now know why. According to his document, persecuted Christians should stay silent, people threatened with death for being gay should do the same.

"In fact Gareth says you cannot be a refugee if you question the regime you live under, no matter how brutal it is.

"This is not the Welsh or British way. We have a noble history of supporting those that stand up to tyranny including the French resistance during the war. This is truly appalling stuff."


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February 2, 2017 Thursday 3:47 AM GMT 


'Donald Trump doesn't care about Australia': Reporter who broke story of Turnbull's disastrous call with Trump says it shows the President has no time for Australia


BYLINE: RACHEL EDDIE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1098 words



Donald Trump  does not care about Australia as an ally according to the journalist who revealed the 'hostile' conversation between the U.S. President and Prime Minister  Malcolm Turnbull. 

A Washington Post journalist made the claims after reporting the U.S. President called the refugee deal 'the worst ever' and told Mr Turnbull their phone conversation was 'the worst call by far'.

'[Trump] doesn't care Australia is an ally over many, many years. What he cares about is the refugee policy he views as dangerous,' Philip Rucker told ABC  on Thursday.

Scroll down for video 

What is the Australia-US refugee deal?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year.

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore.

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban.

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'.

The U.S. President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.

Mr Rucker said the phone call was described 'as contentious certainly, and at times hostile'.

'The tone and substance of [the call] certainly differs from the sanitised account that came out of both governments.'

Mr Turnbull had earlier described their phone call on Saturday, their first since President Trump's inauguration, as 'constructive'.

On Thursday, an anonymous source claimed the president hung up on Mr Turnbull 25 minutes into a phone call that was expected to last an hour.

President Trump reportedly said the refugee agreement, originally made between Mr Turnbull and former President Barack Obama, was 'the worst deal ever'.

'He thinks it hurts him politically at home, in the US, and he feels like I think most importantly that this would be a threat to national security - and he told the Prime Minister as much,' Mr Rucker told ABC News.

'He said he thought Australia might be trying to export, quote 'the next Boston bomber'. That is the reference to the Boston marathon terrorist attack in the United States a few years ago.'

Mr Rucker said President Trump is not concerned with niceties.

'The thing you have to understand about Donald Trump is that he is not a natural diplomat, he is not a politician. He has a career in real estate, in business, and deal-making and he ran for President as someone who was going to disrupt the world order. He was going to make changes. He was going to blow up the system, literally. And disrupt what he sees as sort of a world order that is failing the world and making it less safe.

'So he doesn't really care so much that Australia is an ally over many, many years. What he cares about is the refugee policy that he views as dangerous for the United States. So he doesn't let diplomatic niceties get in the way about how he felt about that refugee policy.'

In a statement on Thursday, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Canberra confirmed President Trump's intention to honour the refugee deal.

But shortly after, he called the deal 'dumb' on Twitter.

'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!,' President Trump wrote.

'President Trump's decision to honor the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman [Sean] Spicer's comments stands,' the spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

At a press conference, Mr Turnbull refused to deny the phone conversation was hostile.

'I'm not going to comment on these reports out of the United States about the conversation,' Mr Turnbull told a press conference from Melbourne on Thursday.

'Australians know me very well. I always stand up for Australia in every forum.'

He said it was better to leave the discussion out of the public domain.

'It's better that these things, these conversations, are conducted candidly, frankly, privately.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and every day to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. 

'My business is being the Prime Minister of Australia. That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and to defend the interests of Australians.'

Mr Turnbull insisted the bond between the allied countries remained strong through the refugee deal.

'I can assure you the relationship is very strong. The fact we received the assurance that we did, the fact that it was confirmed, the very extensive engagement we have with the new administration underlines the closeness of the alliance.

'But as Australians know me, very well, I stand up for Australia in every forum - public or private.'

The U.S. president reportedly told the prime minister he'd spoken with four other leaders - including Russian President Vladimir Putin - and 'this was the worst call by far'.

Mr Trump complained he was going to get killed politically and accused Australia of trying to export the 'next Boston bombers'. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested the leaders move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation, Washington Post reported.

The call was scheduled to go for about an hour, but Mr Trump ended it after 25 minutes.

The official statement about the conversation, released by the White House, told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasised the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said.

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'We discussed the importance of border security and the threat of illegal and irregular migration, and recognised that it is vital that every nation is able to control who comes across its borders,' he said.

The Saturday phone call was their first conversation since President Trump's inauguration.


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telegraph.co.uk


January 24, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM GMT 


'The crisis isn't over, it's getting worse' - inside Serbia's 'frozen hell' for refugees


BYLINE: By James Rothwell


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1190 words


It is noon in the Serbian capital, and as the temperature rises to an almost bearable -3C, hundreds of half-starved bodies are beginning to stir.

The refugees spent the night shivering in abandoned warehouses behind Belgrade rail station, while an icy wind roared through the shattered windows. 

There is a racket of sneezing and coughing as they step outside and trudge through the snow towards a white van across the frozen road.

Aid workers open the rear doors and begin handing out steaming polystyrene boxes of stew and small pieces of bread. The refugees squat in the snow, eating slowly and carefully - it is their only meal of the day. 

A migrant receiving a hot meal from volunteersCredit: AFP

One youngster's shoes look like they are about to fall apart - another has squeezed on a pair at least three sizes too small, his bare heels kicking up greyish slush as he limps towards the van.

Within minutes of finishing their meal, they retreat to the warehouses, where row upon row of tents and sleeping bags await them.

For most of the refugees, who are mainly from Afghanistan and Iraq, it is too cold to go back to bed. The Telegraph saw dozens of men and young boys trying to do so anyway,  covered from head to toe in damp blankets.

Were it not for the constant coughing, they could almost be mistaken for bodies in funeral shrouds, tucked out of sight just a few hundred yards away from the bustling city centre.

Refugee warming up around a fire at a makeshift shelter at an abandoned warehouse in BelgradeCredit: AFP

A spokesman for Save the Children said up to 2,000 people, including dozens of unaccompanied children, are sleeping rough in this squalid camp.  

There is no electricity, no washing facilities and no clean water to drink - only a broken pipe in the wall of an old public toilet which erratically spews out murky water.  

In a desperate attempt to keep warm, some have started burning rubbish, which pumps noxious fumes into the poorly ventilated warehouses and turns them into a breeding ground for potentially deadly lung infections.

With temperatures known to plunge to as low -15C at night, many are more concerned about getting frostbite, with several cases already reported in the camp.

Refugees standing in line for food distributed by volunteers outside of derelict warehousesCredit: AFP

Among the sick and infirm is 14-year-old Hamidulleh, who fled the Laghman province of Afghanistan with his father around six months ago. He says they were separated near the Serbian border, and that he cannot reach his father on his mobile phone.   

"I want to go to France and claim asylum there," he says, "I don't have family in France, but I hope they will take me anyway."

The teenager is not sure how long he has been in the camp at Belgrade, but it is long enough for the toxic fumes to leave his lungs feeling swollen and raw.

He thinks he has already caught the flu and, more worryingly, his kidneys have started to hurt.

A group of Afghan men say they are looking after Hamidulleh until he finds his father, at which point they will pool their funds and pay a smuggler up to three thousand euros to take them deeper into Europe. 

A Serbian government spokeswoman said it had set up several emergency centres to accommodate these refugees, but many are refusing to use them.  

"We are doing what we can to help, but the EU needs to find a solution to this," said  Stanislava Pak Stankovic, a senior adviser to the president of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic. 

"Closing the borders is not solving the problem if it means all the refugees are trapped in Serbia."

She said the crisis was adding further strain to Serbia's struggling economy, and that the government had ramped up security amid fears that Islamic extremists may have infiltrated the camp while posing as refugees. 

After the closure of borders by Hungary and Croatia, Serbia was crowded with hundreds refugees stuck in Belgrade.Credit: AGF

Some refugees said they stay away from the government's shelters because they are determined to reach Europe, and fear that their chances of claiming asylum in the UK or Germany would be ruined if they register themselves in Serbia. 

"The conditions are horrific, it's like some kind of frozen hell," an aid worker told the Telegraph.  

"They have gone through terrible things to get here and now they are stuck because the borders have been closed.

"The refugee crisis is not over, there are up to a hundred refugees coming in every day. And with the borders closed things are getting worse."

It is understood that smugglers operate discreetly in the warehouses and have ramped up their prices as the border shutdown has made the crossings even more dangerous.

Those who try to enter neighbouring Hungary or Croatia risk becoming the victims of police officers and thugs who have been known to violently push refugees back into Serbia.

 In some cases, according to Save the Children, people have been beaten, bitten by dogs, stripped of their clothing and then driven back into Serbia.

"The Bulgarian police beat us, took our money, asked us why we came to Europe," one 12-year-old refugee told aid workers. 

The refugees live in inhuman conditionsCredit: AGF

"In truth the refugee crisis has not abated. It's simply a more dangerous route, especially for children," said Jelena Besedic, Save the Children 's advocacy manager in Serbia. 

"We are seeing injuries such as dog bites and people wounded by brutal treatment as they are pushed back [into Serbia.]"

The spiralling crisis has prompted Save the Children to set up its own 24-hour care centre for families in Belgrade which also includes a small playroom. 

One Iraqi family-of-six had arrived at the centre the previous night  - Ahmed, 48, with his wife Ginnan and their four children. The youngest, Fatima, is only eight years old. 

"We wanted to leave when my brother was killed by Daesh [Islamic State]," said Ahmed, who trained as a doctor in Baghdad, via a translator. 

They fled Iraq to Turkey, and then paid to be smuggled into Greece before passing along the so-called Balkans route, which has been used by nearly a million migrants and refugees since 2015. 

Ahmed and his family in the Child Friendly Space at Save the Children's refugee centre in Belgrade, Serbia.Credit: Tatjana Ristic_Save the Children

"It was either on foot or by taxi for most of the journey," he said, "my wife fainted seven times, we kept catching the flu.

"When we crossed the mountains Fatima was so tired we had to carry her. "

At one point Ahmed and his family tried crossing through a forest as they neared the Serbian border.

They got lost during the night, and ended up taping themselves together for fear of losing one of their children in the darkness. 

It is a small miracle that they made the 1,700 mile journey without getting split up - many others, like Hamidulleh, have not been so lucky. 

Now, they have only one destination in mind, and they are learning as much English as they can to improve their chances of reaching it.. 

"It has to be the UK," says Ahmed, pausing as Fatima interrupts him with a coughing fit, "it's there or nowhere." 


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 4:15 AM GMT 


Did Trump give Turnbull the finger? U.S. President's body language during first call with Australian PM suggests things were NOT going well


BYLINE: CHRIS PLEASANCE and OLLIE GILLMAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 704 words



A photograph taken in the White House shows President Donald Trump appearing to raise his middle finger during his tense first telephone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 

The President is reported to have given Turnbull a dressing down after the Australian leader brought up a controversial refugee deal agreed with the Obama administration - and Trump's body language suggests he was fuming.

In a black-and-white picture taken inside the Oval Office on Sunday, Trump appears to be throwing a middle finger while speaking with the prime minister. 

Scroll down for video 

The image shows the President behind his desk while holding the White House phone in his left hand.

Trump is resting his arm on the table, while touching his left temple with his middle finger, making it appear as if he is swearing at the camera.

The amusing detail was revealed after multiple White House sources leaked details of the phone call to the Washington Post.

It is claimed that Trump was furious with Turnbull when he pressed over an agreement signed with former president Barack Obama to transport 1,250 refugees from from Nauru and Manus Island to the US.

Trump allegedly branded it 'the worst deal ever', saying that the United States appeared to be getting nothing from it.

Trump is also reported to have told Turnbull their talk was 'the worst call by far' with any world leader, following supposedly fruitful conversations with the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump then cut the call short just 25 minutes into an allotted hour-long slot as he hung up on Turnbull, according to the reports.

That did not stop Turnbull from trumpeting his 'achievement', saying that Trump had agreed to honour the deal.

But the White House has since walked back the comments, saying the President is 'still considering' the agreement.

Trump also tweeted about the agreement, saying it was a 'dumb deal' and promising to 'study' it.

Others pointed to Trump's language during the call - saying he 'intended' to honour it but would subject all refugees to 'extreme vetting' - as indications that he was planning to back out of it. 

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said. 

Given the opportunity to deny the reports, Turnbull refused to do so, saying instead that he would 'always stand up for Australia.'

Trump has taken a firm stance on refugees since taking office, issuing an executive order banning immigration to the US from seven predominantly Muslim nations - Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan. He has also refused to take refugees from war-torn Syria.

The Australian prime minister had previously refused to criticise Trump over the refugee deal. 

WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIA-US REFUGEE DEAL?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island. 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres.

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban.

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'.

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.


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mirror.co.uk


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 4:31 PM GMT 


Gary Lineker accuses 'shameful' Tory MPs of shutting out child refugees 'to gain a few votes';
The ex-footballer and campaigner tweeted his fury after MPs voted down an amendment to find extra space for children fleeing war


BYLINE: By Dan Bloom


SECTION: NEWS,POLITICS; Version:2


LENGTH: 775 words


Gary Lineker has accused "shameful" Tory MPs of defeating a bid to help stranded child refugees so they could "gain a few votes".

The ex-footballer and prominent refugee campaigner hit out after MPsvoted down an amendment to find extra space for children fleeing war.

He tweeted: "Shameful. But I suppose if they feel it might gain them a few votes at the next election it's worth abandoning the helpless." 

Celebrities including acting stars Toby Jones, Rhys Ifans and Juliet Stevenson had also backed today's failed bid.

The vote was called after ministersquietly closed the so-called Dubs scheme, which moves unaccompanied child refugees from Europe to Britain, after accepting just 350.

MPs defeat desperate bid to help child refugees despite Tory MPs rebelling against Theresa May

The total was barely a tenth of the 3,000 demanded by Labour peer Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child.

gary lineker

Ministers justified their decision by saying councils had no space left.

But Tory MP Heidi Allen said Lewisham Council had offered to house 23 children and been given just one - with Bristol, which offered 10, receiving zero.

She told MPs: "These small numbers do add up. Small gestures of individual generosity collectively make us leaders... I know there is further capacity out there."

She proposed an amendment to the Children and Social Work Bill that would force councils to assess and declare their spare capacity once a year.

A rebellion was brewing as Labour, theSNPand Lib Dems all backed her amendment - but in the end, just two other Tories voted for it. It was defeated by 20 votes.

Josephine Liebl, Oxfam's Humanitarian Policy Adviser, said: "The Government appears willing to decide the fates of child refugees based on guesswork instead of evidence."

Lily Caprani, Deputy Executive Director at Unicef UK, said: "Without legal schemes to relocate unaccompanied refugee children there's an ongoing risk of children being pushed into the dangerous path of smugglers and traffickers.

"This crisis is not going away. This country must not turn away from doing its bit to help the most vulnerable."

Mike Adamson, Chief Executive of the British Red Cross, added: "It is extremely disappointing that this opportunity to keep the Dubs scheme open has been rejected, meaning only 350 unaccompanied refugee children will be given a safe home in the UK under this route.

"Offering a legal route to the UK is nothing short of a lifeline to children who have arrived on Europe's shores only to be left stranded and alone in camps which are cold and unsafe, having suffered so much already.

"The UK can and should do better than this."

Ms Stevenson told MPs before the vote: "Please vote with your hearts as well as your minds, these children are desperately in need of your support and help.

"If we don't help them they have only two choices, which is to be vulnerable to traffickers who we know are swarming all over Europe. Ten thousand children have already gone missing during the refugee crisis.

"Or they make these very dangerous journeys and many of them don't survive them. We know how many children have been lost over the course of the last two years and we really, really need to step up.

"I think it's a really important and significant moment in history to be seen to be showing compassion, which I hope is still part of British people's make-up."

The government says taking too many children from within Europe will be a "pull factor" encouraging others to cross the Mediterranean.

Children's minister Edward Timpson said measures were already in place to find out what capacity councils had.

How Tory MPs voted on amendment to help child refugees

How Labour MPs voted on amendment to help child refugees

How SNP MPs voted on amendment to help child refugees

How Lib Dem MPs voted on amendment to help child refugees

He told MPs: "The Government has committed to publishing a safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children by May 1, 2017, by virtue of the written ministerial statement that I laid on November 1 last year.

"As part of this we have been consulting with local authorities about their capacity and will set out plans to boost capacity for foster carers and supported lodgings in that strategy."

Downing Street said the Government had a record of which it was "justifiably proud'' when it came to supporting refugees and did not support the amendment.

"We don't think this is the right approach. We think it is right that we focus on protecting the children who are already in the UK. It is also about making sure we don't provide incentives for children to make these perilous journeys," a No 10 spokesman said.


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The Western Mail


April 6, 2017 Thursday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


'Wales should be nation of sanctuary for refugees'


BYLINE: Martin Shipton


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3


LENGTH: 620 words


WALES should be the world's first "nation of sanctuary" for refugees and asylum seekers, a National Assembly committee has declared.

The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee heard that in 2016 one in every 113 humans was either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum - greater than the populations of the UK, France or Italy.

Last year, with an intensifying conflict in Syria and huge uncertainty across countries in the region, there were more displaced people in the world than at any other time in history. 

"The constant news cycle of images and stories of people escaping war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and other countries brings home the tragedy of current world events and the stories people have told us during this inquiry have been both harrowing and distressing but ultimately inspiring," said committee chair John Griffiths, the Labour AM for Newport East.

"As we heard, those who survive the conflict, boat crossings, people traffickers and countless miles of travelling to reach the UK, including unaccompanied children, are likely to have experienced severely traumatic events which leave lasting psychological scars.

"We were told that a phrase often used by refugees and asylum seekers is 'I used to be someone'. It is critical that there is the right support available to them when they reach Wales so that they can participate fully in Welsh life and have fulfilling lives in their new communities."

Mr Griffiths said that at the core of the report was a belief that Wales could be the world's first nation of sanctuary, repairing some of the damage done to people through no fault of their own, and to help them be someone once again.

Even before the committee's report was published its work has made an impact on the way services for refugees and asylum seekers are planned and delivered. Prompted by the committee's inquiry the Welsh Government has expanded the role of its Operations Board beyond the Syrian refugees programme to cover all refugees and asylum seekers.

In addition Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, which is responsible for asylum accommodation in Wales, has engaged with the Welsh Refugee Coalition about the quality of housing and complaints procedures. The committee wants to see further action and an updated and an improved strategic approach through reviewing the Refugee and Asylum Seeker Delivery Plan.

Members heard that unaccompanied asylum seeking children were one of the most vulnerable groups of children in Wales - often at greater risk of exploitation, abuse, genderbased violence and trafficking. They want the Welsh Government to establish a guardianship service for them, to ensure there is capacity and capability across Wales to undertake age assessments, and to set minimum standards for mental health support.

To help refugees and asylum seekers integrate into local communities, the committee believes the role of community cohesion co-ordinators should be expanded. It also wants to see improvements in the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages teaching.

There should also be more support for asylum seekers throughout the asylum process, in particular addressing their housing needs. The committee is calling for better monitoring and resolution of complaints about asylum accommodation, a revised asylum accommodation contract, and ensuring asylum seekers' landlords are registered and inspected.

Support should also continue for both refugees and failed asylum seekers after the asylum process, through action to prevent destitution, help for refugees to find longterm accommodation, and better access to education and employment.

The committee also wants to see improvements to the advice available during the asylum process.


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Brechin Advertiser


February 8, 2017 Wednesday


Funding for refugee doctors programme


LENGTH: 626 words


Trained doctors who have come to Scotland as refugees are to be given support to re-enter the medical profession in Scotland.

Funded by £161,692 from the Scottish Government, the New Refugee Doctors Project is unique in the UK in supporting medically trained and qualified refugees to achieve medical registration and contribute their skills to NHS Scotland, as well as offering a long-term package of support.

Run by the Bridges Programmes in partnership with the BMA and NHS Education for Scotland, and Clyde College and the City of Glasgow College, the funding will help suitably qualified refugees access training, language support and professional mentoring to help them meet the standards for professional registration with the General Medical Council and practise medicine here in Scotland. As part of the funding, the doctors have committed to working for NHS Scotland. 

Equalities Secretary Angela Constance announced the funding at Kersland House Surgery in Milngavie, which will be involved in the training of refugee doctors.

She said: "This programme - unique in the UK - will reduce the de-skilling of medics who have sought refuge in Scotland, and will allow NHS Scotland to utilise the experience of refugee doctors with valuable and highly specialised skills.

"We know access to training and employment is crucial to integration, and it can be devastating for those who had a skill in their home country to be unable to use that in their new country. By giving people a helping hand to utilise their skills we're not only supporting them to make connections and friendships, and to build a better life, but we will all benefit from those skills too.

"Scotland has a long history of welcoming refugees, and working together to ensure they have the best possible opportunities to integrate and create a safe and stable home for themselves."

Mohammad Helmi, a Syrian Doctor participant on the New Refugee Doctors' Project, said: "The project funding means it can be tailored to meet our needs in order to bridge the gap in our career path. Getting back into medicine is what I have been looking for since my first day in Scotland, and I cannot imagine myself being anywhere else. It is my passion where I will able to contribute the most to humanity."

Maggie Lennon, founder and Director of the Bridges Programmes, said: "We are delighted the Scottish Government is willing to make this investment in these Refugee doctors who are so eager to gain their GMC registration and start practicing again. This funding will help make that journey all the more quicker and smoother.

"It's wonderful to note that at a time where Refugees in some parts of the world are not always given such a warm welcome that once again Scotland is showing compassion and practical support. Getting back to medicine means the world to these outstanding men and women, and helping them achieve that will be a major focus for Bridges Programmes."

Dr Greg Jones, Clinical Lead at NHS Education Scotland, which works in partnership with GP surgeries to train doctors to become senior clinicians, said: "We aim to allow refugee doctors to use their previous experience and training and become valuable contributors to the NHS in Scotland.

"Before doctors can work in NHS Scotland they need to prove they have a high standard of written and spoken English. Only then are they allowed to sit the exams they need to prove their medical knowledge is satisfactory.

"Additional support to help refugee doctors with English language examinations is very welcome in helping them over this initial hurdle into medical training in Scotland. We are committed to supporting doctors into training for the benefit of both the NHS and wider society whilst ensuring patient safety at all times."


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


March 15, 2017 Wednesday


UK foreign secretary to visit Uganda 15 March


LENGTH: 504 words


Text of report entitled "UK foreign minister Boris Johnson to meet Museveni" published in English by Ugandan privately-owned Chimp Reports news website on 15 March

United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Johnson Boris arrives in Uganda today Wednesday [15 March] for talks with President Yoweri Museveni, Chimp Corps report. 

Officials said Museveni and his guest will discuss the security crisis in South Sudan and the refugee problem affecting the region.

Johnson is expected to arrive in Uganda at 7p.m. [1600 gmt] before meeting with Museveni at State House Entebbe.

Johnson's arrival comes against the recent visit of UK's International Development Minister James Wharton who reaffirmed the country's support for refugees in Uganda as Africa's largest refugee hosting nation.

During the week that famine has been declared in some parts of South Sudan, minister Wharton saw the life-saving impact of UK aid in Uganda when he visited a centre where refugees are registered and longer term refugee settlements near the border with South Sudan.

Uganda now hosts over one million refugees with the vast majority from South Sudan.

With five million people in neighbouring South Sudan facing the threat of going without enough food and almost 2,400 people every day being forced to flee their homes from devastating conflict and cross the border into Uganda, the UK's support is getting urgently needed food, water and medicine to those in desperate need.

Minister Wharton met with women and children at Impevi refugee centre and Rhino settlement area in northern Uganda, who have been displaced by the horrors of war and sexual violence.

He heard about the challenges of getting life-saving humanitarian aid to those who need it.

In 2016, the UK's support to refugees in Uganda has provided food for 650,000 people including 45,000 children; shelter for 56,250 people; blankets, water containers and sanitary towels for 64,000 people and vaccinated 210,000 children.

South Sudan faces an urgent and severe humanitarian crisis with almost half the population in desperate need, which impacts on the whole region.

The first famine for six years has now been declared and the threat of starvation and ongoing violence is forcing over one million people to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries like Uganda.

Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee policies in the world where refugees are given land, jobs, and integrated into communities, giving people fleeing conflict hope for the future.

The UK is expected to continue to play a leading role in helping encourage the longer-term stability of South Sudan, Uganda and the broader region.

It's also anticipated that Boris will get brief from British businesses and Ugandan officials on furthering trade and investment opportunities.

According to DFID's Economic Development Strategy, UK support is helping Uganda and other countries industrialise faster, trade more and create new and productive jobs for its growing young population.

Source: Chimp Reports in English 15 Mar 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 15, 2017 Wednesday 10:49 PM GMT 


Child refugees U-turn: Children's Commissioners express 'deep concern' over end to Dubs scheme;
Amber Rudd urged to reconsider ending scheme that protects vulnerable youngsters


BYLINE: Caroline Mortimer


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:8


LENGTH: 661 words


The UK's four children's commissioners have written to Home Secretary Amber Rudd to express their "deep concern" over the decision to end a scheme to bring lone child refugees to the country.

The Home Office unexpectedly announced the scheme would end after 350 children were offered sanctuary in the UK under the so-called Dubs amendment - far lower than the figure originally promised.

Last year, it was widely thought that Government would take 3,000 lone children from European refugee camps after Lord Alfred Dubs forced the Government to accept an amendment on the matter when the Immigration Act passed through Parliament. 

The commissioners of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have told of their "deep concern" about the decision and urged Ms Rudd to "consider carefully the plight of the many thousands of lone child refugees in Europe who are currently at risk of exploitation and trafficking".

Read more

Nicky Morgan warns Tories risk 'nasty party' image over child refugees

May given 50,000-strong petition condemning end of refugee scheme

Full list of MPs who voted against Dubs Amendment for child refugees

They said: "The Government made a welcome commitment through the scheme to taking some of the most vulnerable lone child refugees who are rootless in Europe.

"The number that have been brought to the UK under the scheme thus far falls significantly short of expectations and we consider that, as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, the UK should play a far greater role in both offering protection and security to lone child refugees in Europe and in resolving the crisis that children are facing in Europe, especially in Greece and Italy.

"We urge the Government to act humanely and responsibly, and to maintain a positive commitment to the Dubs scheme within a comprehensive strategy to safeguard unaccompanied child refugees within Europe."

The letter is signed by Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, and Tam Baillie, Sally Holland and Koulla Yiasouma - her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.

It follows mounting anger over the premature end to the scheme and the claim that they were shelving the plan because local authorities could not accommodate the children - something which has been rejected by several councils who said they were happy to accept more.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, and the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols have also called for the Government to reverse its decision.

Lord Dubs, who was himself a child refugee having arrived in Britain as part of the Kindertransport just before the Second World War, has vowed to fight against the closure of the scheme.

A legal challenge is expected to reach the High Court in May.

A Government spokesperson said:" We are committed to supporting vulnerable children who are caught up in conflict and danger. Thanks to the goodwill of the British public and local authorities in the last year alone, we have provided refuge or other forms of leave to more than 8,000 children.

"Our commitment to resettle 350 unaccompanied children from Europe is just one way we are helping. We have also committed to resettle up to 3,000 vulnerable children and family members from the MENA region and 20,000 Syrians by the end of this Parliament. We have a proud history of offering protection to those who need it and children will continue to arrive in the UK from around the world through our other resettlement schemes and asylum system.

"The Government has significantly increased the funding it provides to local authorities who look after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. It's vital that we get the balance right between enabling eligible children to come to the UK as quickly as possible and ensuring local authorities have capacity to host them and provide them with the support they will need".


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to 'ship the next Boston bombers' to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 899 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the allied leaders in just 25 minutes.

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.  

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull said on Thursday that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore in Australian-funded detention centres

The refugees were trying to make it to Australia via boat 

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

The US president reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island when the pair spoke on Sunday morning Australia time, Saturday night Washington time.  

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister. 

The Post also reported the president told Mr Turnbull it was his 'intention' to honour the refugee agreement.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal.

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation.

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that Mr Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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walesonline.co.uk


January 29, 2017 Sunday 7:31 PM GMT 


What has Donald Trump done since becoming President? 10 controversial policies the billionaire has pursued;
During his campaign, Donald Trump made controversial remarks and promises about Muslims and Mexicans


BYLINE: By Steffan Rhys


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1508 words


Donald Trump became President of the United States on January 20, 2017.

Nine days in, and his highly controversial executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US - as well as banning refugees from entering Syria indefinitely - has resulted in a global backlash.

During his presidential campaign, Trump called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".

Also on the campaign he promised to "build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall". He added: "Mark my words." 

However, when he won the election and became president-elect, there was debate over whether he might row back a little from those statements.

Since taking power, these are the policies he has actually moved to enact.

'AMERICA FIRST' President Trump rams home his message in inauguration speech

Trump has blocked immigrants and visa holders from seven countries - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan - from entering the US for 90 days. Announcing his "extreme vetting" plan, he invoked the September 11 attacks. Most of the hijackers on that day were from Saudi Arabia. The rest were from the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon.

Referring to Islamic terrorists, Mr Trump was reported by the New York Times to say: "We don't want them here. We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas."

trump tweet

There is confusion around the order, but it seems to apply not just to refugees or immigrants seeking entry into the US for the first time, but even to people from those seven countries who currently hold green cards and are permanent US residents.

refugees tweet

So if they leave the US, they may not be allowed back in. Green-card holders already in the US are reportedly being advised to postpone plans to travel abroad. Somali-born athlete Mo Farah - a four-time Olympic champion for Great Britain who now lives in the US -says he is scared he will "have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home".

The restriction also applies to dual nationals. So a British citizen who is also a citizen of Iran will not be able to enter the US.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called it a "euphemism for discriminating against Muslims". A federal judge issued a temporary halt to the deportation of visa holders or refugees stranded at US airports, after the ACLU filed a lawsuit.

It had an immediate impact on people around the world, stranding legal residents of the US (and other countries) and travellers with visas at airports, where confusion reigned.

refugees tweet 2

the New York Times reported

The US Refugee Admissions Programme has been suspended for 120 days. This suspends the entry of refugees into the US and directs officials to determine additional screening "to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States". He also set a cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted to the US in 2017. Barack Obama had set the limit at 110,000.

Raymond Offensheiser, the president of Oxfam America, said: "The refugees impacted by today's decision are among the world's most vulnerable people... who are simply trying to find a safe place to live after fleeing unfathomable violence and loss."

There is a critical humanitarian crisis in Syria, where civilians have been dying in huge numbers as a result of the country's civil war.

Almost five million people have been displaced from Syria since the civil war began - in 2016, 12,587 of them ended up in the US as refugees, saidThe Guardian,who also reported that America's Syrian refugee resettlement programme has been called "one of the most important in the world". According to the UN, more than 400,000 people have died in Syria's civil war.

Trump's order stops the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely.

Why is there war in Syria?

Another executive order signed by Trump reinstated the so-called "global gag rule", to use the term adopted by its critics.According to Vox, "this is a a policy from previous Republican administrations that blocks federal funding from international family planning organisations that 'either provide abortion or discuss abortion services with their clients'."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said this would "end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions overseas, along with coercive abortion and sterilization practices". However, Vox reports that there's already a law in place to prevent foreign aid from being used to provide aboritions. The "global gag rule" goes further by also taking funding from international organisations that discuss abortion services (which could then be privately funded).

Trump is not the first to do this, though. The policy was introduced in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Since then, every Democratic president has rescinded the measure and every Republican has brought it back.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said: "We know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and abortions."

This is how sexist society still is in 2017

This executive order called on the Department of Homeland Security to "take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border". A second order pledges to hire 10,000 more immigration officers.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he was going to build the wall, which he described as "beautiful", and insisted it would be paid for by the Mexican government, who have repeatedly said they won't be doing that.

The US-Mexico border is 1,989 miles long and there are already fences built along parts of it. However, the US doesn't own all of the land adjacent to the border, law professor Philip Schragtold CBS. He said: "In Texas, apparently there are a great many of the lands adjacent to the border in private hands, so the government would first have to seize the land by eminent domain or purchase it from the owners and then deal with the construction problems".

The Keystone pipeline is a 1,179-mile pipeline being built, running from Canada to America's Gulf Coast. It would carry petroleum. Its construction was halted by Barack Obama in 2015, with concerns over how its continued construction squared with a commitment to climate change.

The Dakota Access pipeline would carry crude oil from the state of North Dakota to other parts of the country. There have been massive protests over its construction after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said the pipeline interfered with their drinking water. And in December, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would explore an alternative route.

Trump signed memoranda that renew the process for constructing both pipelines.

Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP) negotiations began under President Obama. Trump has issued a memorandum that called on the US to pull out of the partnership. The deal had never actually gone into effect in the US.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) was a huge overhaul of the US healthcare system done by the previous president's administration. Its aim was to extend health insurance coverage to those in the US that didn't have it (an estimated 15%). It did this by requiring all Americans to have health insurance but offering subsidies to make coverage more affordable. It also required businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance. Republicans have constantly opposed it, however, saying it imposes too many costs on business and intrudes too far into the lives and affairs of private businesses and individuals.

One of the first things Trump did as president was to issue a directive to federal agencies involved in the healthcare system to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" any portion of the Affordable Care Act that creates financial burden on states, individuals or healthcare providers. He said this should be done "to the maximum extent permitted by law". This order technically does not give these agencies any powers they don't already have - it's been described more as "a planted flag".

Trump signed an order that he said would result in "a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States". He called for budget negotiations to acquire new planes, ships and resources.

Trump said America's "military strength will be questioned by no one, but neither will the nation's commitment to peace."

Trump issued a memorandum imposing a freeze on all federal civilian employees "across the board". No vacant positions were allowed to be filled and no new positions could be created "except in limited circumstances". The memorandum does not apply to military personnel. Trump wants to reduce government debts and decrease the size of the federal workforce.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 3:14 PM GMT 


The idiot economics of Donald Trump's 'Muslim ban' will hit his own people in the wallet;
The fact that those who had been granted green cards (permanent residence) were initially included in the ban will have sent a chill through any non-American worker, regardless of nationality or religion


BYLINE: Ben Chu


SECTION: VOICES


LENGTH: 658 words


A moral disgrace. An act of wanton cruelty. A legal outrage. An unconstitutional power grab. A work of gross administrative incompetence. A self-inflicted security wound. But economic idiocy too?

It seems almost otiose to mention money in the context of Trump's arbitrary executive order barring Syrian refugees from America, capping the overall refugee intake for 2017 at 50,000 and stopping all entry to nationals from seven countries from the Muslim world.

But it's true. Trump's order not only defiles America's founding principles, sullies its global reputation and gives comfort to autocrats the world over, but it will, in all likelihood, ultimately lead to the diminishment of the vigour of the world's dominant economy too. 

One doesn't need to look far in America for examples of refugees and their families who have made a stunning contribution to the country's prosperity. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was the son of a man who fled violence in Syria. Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, was a refugee from the Soviet Union.

Donald Trump announces a ban on refugees and all visitors from Muslim-majority countries

But the economic case for being open to refugees does not merely rest on a handful of entrepreneurial superstars. The idea that these people seeking sanctuary in other states represent an endless burden on taxpayers - something we've heard so often in Europe in recent years - is nonsense.

Data from Europe shows that, over time, the employment rate of refugees rises from 25 per cent to more than 60 per cent. In Sweden asylum seekers have shown a bigger increase in employment rates than any other migrant group.

Trump's apologists stress that the ban is only temporary. Otherspoint out that America in the Obama years only admitted an average of 70,000 refugees a year. It's certainly true that America has not been pulling its weight when it comes to responding to the global refugee emergency.

But this is really to miss the point.

The economic damage from Trump's order goes far wider than its direct impact. The bulk of the harm is in the message it sends. The barely disguised discrimination against Muslims tells 1.6 billion followers of that faith that "America does not want you". And the fact that those who had been granted green cards (permanent residence) were initially included in the ban will have sent a chill through any non-American citizenworker, regardless of nationality or religion. The message here is: you can no longer rely on the US government to respect your status, to treat you fairly.Their incentive to stay - or the incentivefor others with skills and talentsto come to America - has taken a terrible blow.

Many informed observers suspect this anti-immigrant signal is the real goal. And listening to the views of Steve Bannon, Trump's "chief strategist" and reportedly the driving force behind the executive order, this seems all too plausible. Bannon has ranted in the past about US engineering schools being "full of people from South Asia and East Asia" and objected to the number of Asian Silicon Valley chief executives. "Twenty per cent of this country is immigrants. Is that not the beating heart of this problem?" he once asked.

This is no finessing this. What we have here from the mouth of Trump's right hand man is the raw voice of nativist bigotry.

It is also the voice of economic folly. America is a country settled by immigrants and whose spectacular economic success is built upon successive waves of mass immigration from people from all over the world of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. It has prospered enormouslyon the back of immigrants' inventive talents and hard work.

This noxious executive order is likely to be just the beginning. It sets the ugly and profoundly un-American tone. The longer Trump and Bannon control immigration policy in the US, the greater the damage that we can expect to be inflicted on the most productive national economy the planet has ever seen.


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The Independent - Daily Edition


February 22, 2017 Wednesday  
First Edition


Anmnesty condemns the UK's 'appalling lack of leadership' in refugee crisis


BYLINE: MAY BULMAN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4


LENGTH: 1108 words


The UK has been accused of shirking its responsibilities and showing an "appalling lack of leadership" over the international refugee crisis as safe spaces for refugees dwindle across the globe, Amnesty International has warned.

The human rights organisation's annual report states that toxic narratives of blame, fear and scapegoating by those in power, coupled with a "perilously weak" global response to mass atrocities and the movement on people, has sent out a message that refugees across the globe are not entitled to basic human rights.

The report, which delivers the most comprehensive analysis of the state of human rights around the world, raises concerns that the failure of the UK and other nations to act accordingly in response to the crisis has brought the idea of human dignity and equality under "vigorous and relentless assault", prompting a warning from Amnesty that "history will judge us". 

Steve Simmons, refugee and migrant rights programme director at Amnesty International UK, told The Independent the UK Government was shirking its responsibility to protect people fleeing war from the hands of traffickers and other human rights abuses. "We are in a spiralling problem whereby places of safety are getting smaller and smaller, and that comes as successive governments, including the UK, either start trying to close their borders or trying to force refugees out of their countries, including back to on-going and escalating conflicts," he said.

"Governments have powers to either take responsibility or shirk those responsibilities, and I'm afraid our Government is increasingly shirking those responsibilities. The signal that the UK Government and governments in Europe are sending elsewhere is a dramatically bad one for refugee protection globally. As more and more governments turn their backs, the smugglers and traffickers turn out to be the only people seemingly offering hope to people fleeing conflict and persecution, so of course more and more people are driven to their hands."

Mr Simmons cited one of the most serious current examples of this being the situation in Afghanistan, where hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forcibly returned to a country that is getting increasingly unstable and already has more than a million people internally displaced within it.

"Iran and Pakistan are sending back hundreds of thousands of Afghans who immediately become internally displaced," Mr Simmons added. "And then you have European countries, including the UK, which themselves have chosen to turn their backs on Afghan refugees, and themselves are seeking to increase their forced returns of Afghans to that unstable place."

The report, titled The State of the World's Human Rights, condemns the "little political will" to address a long list of crises across the globe, including war crimes committed in at least 23 countries last year. It condemns the UK's "continued to resist calls to take more responsibility for hosting refugees", citing the few dozen separated children it accepted from France following the demolition of the Calais Jungle and the criticism from NGOs after a recent policy for further removing safeguards against harmful detention of immigrants within the country.

The report also outlines the marked rise in hate crime as a significant factor in the failure to respond to the plight of refugees, stating that "a hateful, divisive and dehumanising rhetoric" has developed in the West thanks to "anti-establishment" figures who blame so-called elites.

"Hateful, divisive and dehumanising rhetoric unleashed the darkest instincts of human nature. By casting collective responsibility for social and economic ills onto particular groups, often ethnic or religious minorities, those in power gave free rein to discrimination and hate crimes, particularly in Europe and the USA," the report says. "When self-styled 'anti-establishment' figures blamed so-called elites, international institutions and the 'other' for social or economic grievances, they chose the wrong prescription. The sense of insecurity and disenfranchisement - arising from factors such as unemployment, job insecurity, growing inequality and the loss of public services - demanded commitment, resources and policy shifts from government."

Hate crimes in the UK surged by 14 per cent in the three months after the Brexit vote in June compared to the same period the previous year, and it is widely feared that with the triggering of Article 50 these numbers will rise further.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International, said: "When language around 'taking our country back' and 'making America great again' is coupled with proposals to treat EU migrants like bargaining chips or to ban refugees on the grounds of religion, it fosters deep hatred and mistrust and sends a strong message that some people are entitled to human rights and others aren't.

"This toxic rhetoric being used by politicians around the world risks taking us into a dark age of human rights and could lead to profound consequences for all of us. We are witnessing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War and wealthy nations like the UK and the US have shown an appalling lack of leadership and responsibility. History will judge us for this."

Mr Simmons said the conviction that the UK is doing all it can to help refugees was "absurd", and warned that if more wasn't done to solve the refugee crisis now, it could escalate to a level that demanded much more in the future. "If we carry on like this, it will only continue, and we'll see more people trying to make the desperate journeys which killed at least 5,000 people in the Mediterranean last year," Mr Simmons added. "The UK could and should be doing an awful lot more to allow family reunification of people who already here to be joined by refugees fleeing from the conflicts elsewhere. It is absurd to think this country could not do significantly more, and if we don't do significantly more now, we're only going to find that the escalation of these crises demand much more of us well into the future."

Amid its condemnation of the global response to the refugee crisis, the report commended the actions of some people in taking actions to help refugees and affirm humanity and the fundamental dignity of others.

Mr Simmons said those in power must endeavour to recognise this. "Governments also need to recognise that while there are members of the public who have responded in appalling ways and are driven by horrible rhetoric, there are also large numbers of the public who have responded in clearly compassionate humanitarian ways to go out and provide support elsewhere," he said.


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ENP Newswire


June 20, 2017 Tuesday


-EBRD boosts resilience of refugee-hosting countries Jordan and Turkey


LENGTH: 603 words


EBRD boosts resilience of refugee-hosting countries Jordan and Turkey.

EUR254 million invested to improve municipal services, small business growth and economic inclusion

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been helping communities in Jordan and Turkey cope with the influx of millions of people from war-torn Syria, with a refugee crisis response plan that has so far delivered investments worth EUR254 million.
 



Currently, around 6.6 million people, including one million refugees from neighbouring Syria, live and work in areas benefiting from EBRD investments and technical cooperation projects focused mainly on improving strained municipal infrastructure, which serves a population that has increased sharply. In addition, the EBRD refugee response aims to create job opportunities through boosting small businesses and increasing the economic inclusion of groups such as young people and women who are unable to participate fully in the economy.

Resilience and inclusion are at the core of the EBRD's response to the developments in Jordan and Turkey. The Bank continues to work on a pipeline of projects potentially worth EUR900 million, including EBRD finance and grant blending. This is also supported by policy dialogue in areas such as public-private partnerships, skills development and employment. Donor funding contributed to date for existing and forthcoming projects, from the Bank's own resources and from Finland, Norway, Taipei China, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Concessional Financing Facility and the European Union, totals approximately EUR180 million.

In Jordan, among several projects in the municipal and infrastructure sector, the Bank has provided a EUR106 million loan to the Greater Amman Municipality for the solid waste infrastructure urgently needed in the country's capital, given the significant increase in waste due to the number of Syrian refugees. A loan in Jordanian dinars, equivalent to EUR1.8 million, to Microfund for Women will increase access to finance for women, including refugees and people living in more remote regions.

In Turkey's south-eastern region, the Bank is providing finance of EUR80 million to build a modern hospital in Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border, where refugees account for over a third of the population, under a public-private scheme. It is also working with the local chamber of commerce to support entrepreneurship and is looking to engage with Turkish banks to provide loans for small businesses active in refugee-hosting communities, boosting local economies and creating employment opportunities.

Pierre Heilbronn, EBRD Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, said: 'To mark World Refugee Day tomorrow, we are renewing our commitment to continue supporting our countries' host and refugee communities with investment, technical advice and policy reform efforts to tackle the challenges posed by the Syrian crisis. We are closely coordinating our actions with national response programmes, other international financial institutions and international efforts. Our grant-blending approach and private sector focus complement other types of crisis support such as the immediate humanitarian assistance and help the countries address the short and medium-term economic challenges they face.'

Through its refugee response work, the EBRD will continue to focus on developing the resilience and inclusiveness of local economies, improving public services and helping create jobs and economic opportunities for all.

[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk ]


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The Guardian(London)


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 1:17 PM GMT 


UN says Trump's revised travel ban will worsen plight of refugees;
High commissioner says refugees are not criminals as some affected Muslim-majority countries express disappointment


BYLINE: Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor


SECTION: US NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 858 words


Donald Trump's revised travel ban will increase the woes of the world's refugees, the United Nations has said, as some of the Muslim-majority countries affected by the ban expressed their disappointment, insisting they had fully cooperated with US anti-terrorist efforts.

The executive order blocks entry to the US for citizens from six of the seven countries named in Trump's original order - Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya - for a period of 90 days and suspends the US refugee programme for 120 days. 

Related: Research indicates Trump travel ban was based on misleading data

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said refugees were not criminals but "ordinary people forced to flee war, violence and persecution in their home countries". The secretary general, António Guterres, pointedly made an emergency visit to Somalia, saying people were dying in the country due to famine.

But overall the reaction to the reordered ban was more muted than the outrage at the chaotic announcement of Trump's original executive order on 27 January.

The subdued response is partly because it was widely expected, delivered with less fanfare and at least will not be implemented for a week, ensuring air passengers will not be thrown off planes just before takeoff in a repeat of the desperate scenes that accompanied the first ban.

On Tuesday, 6 Sudanese refugees in Cairo were permitted to travel to New York.

The Sudanese foreign ministry said it was disappointed with the revised executive order. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said Tehran would wait and see the details of the new executive order and "would react in proportion".

Iran's deputy foreign minister says Iran's "retaliatory decision" over Trump's initial travel ban is still in place.Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency quoted the deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, saying the measures Iran implemented after the original ban on entry for US citizens were still in force and there was no need for a new decision.

Libya, currently gripped by renewed fighting to control its oil terminals, put out no fresh statement regarding the new executive order.

The revised ban now excludes Iraq, a country alongside which the US is currently fighting to defeat Islamic State in Mosul. The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, was advised not to take reciprocal action against Trump's original order, despite significant pressure from the Iraq parliament to do so, and his self-restraint - and lobbying - appears to have paid off.

Some other small changes also make it less vulnerable to legal challenges. The new order clarifies that permanent residents, existing visa holders, people already admitted as refugees or granted asylum, and dual citizens can enter the US.

But Grandi said the UN remained concerned. "The imperative remains to provide protection for people fleeing deadly violence, and we are concerned that this decision, though temporary, may compound the anguish for those it affects," he said.

"Americans have long played a crucial role in promoting global stability while simultaneously exemplifying the highest humanitarian ideals, from support for refugee emergencies overseas, to welcoming some of the most vulnerable refugee families in the United States to rebuild their lives in safety, freedom and dignity," he said.

"This is the gold standard in refugee protection and a powerful model for all countries that, at a time of record-high levels of forced human displacement, this kind of humane leadership is needed more than ever."

The largest concentration of refugees directly affected are likely to be nearly 15,000 Somalis in a Kenyan refugee camp who fled their war-torn country and hoped to resettle in the US.

The Somali president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who met Guterres in Mogadishu, called for the US ban to be lifted and insisted his country had the capacity to fight terrorism.

The main Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia, remain exempt from the ban. Saudi Arabia, which is seeking better relations with Trump on issues such as Syria and Yemen, said very little about the ban when it was first announced and continued its policy of discretion on Tuesday.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation last month criticised the earlier order describing it as "selective and discriminatory". The OIC said it was of the view that the ban will further complicate the grave situation that refugees find themselves.

In Britain the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, described the ban as a retrograde step for the US despite what she called "some cosmetic changes" in its revised version.

"By abdicating its responsibilities under international law, the administration continues to send a terrible message to the rest of the world on the refugee crisis," she said. "While it remains to be seen whether or not this new executive order will stand up in court, nothing in this announcement changes the fact that these measures are unnecessary, divisive and wrong."

The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the deal would not affect the US commitment to take refugees from the Manus Island and Nauru refugee centres.


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The Guardian


January 30, 2017 Monday 11:57 PM GMT 


How the conservative media has reported Trump's immigration ban;
Breitbart and the Daily Caller among sites rejecting labeling of executive order as Muslim ban and linking move to actions by Barack Obama


BYLINE: Guardian staff


SECTION: MEDIA


LENGTH: 784 words


Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday suspending refugee admission and banning entry to the US from certain Muslim-majority countries for a number of days. But how was Trump's executive order and the ensuing chaos covered by the pro-Trump conservative media?

Sites such as Breitbart News, formerly run by Trump's senior advisor Stephen Bannon, or the Daily Caller, founded by the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, reported favorably on the news, pushed back against the labeling of the executive order as a Muslim ban and compared the executive order to the actions of Barack Obama. 

The executive order was met with outrage and large protests at airports and locations around the country as many who tried to enter the country were detained at airports. Legal challenges were brought against it, with federal judges in New York, Virginia and Massachusetts ordering a temporary halt to deportations for people who arrived in the US with valid visas but were detained on entry.

On Breitbart, a post entitled Seven Inconvenient Facts About Trump's Refugee Actions published on Sunday claimed that the "sober and logical reasons for President Donald Trump's executive order on refugees and visitors are rising above the noise after an evening of hysterical over-reactions and emotional meltdowns on the nation's TV networks". Writer John Hayward said: "It is NOT a 'Muslim ban'," as the order's text does not explicitly mention the word Muslim or Islam, and said the order was legal and about security rather than "supposed xenophobia".

Trump's order suspends the entire US refugee admissions system for 120 days as well as the Syrian refugee program indefinitely, bans entry from seven majority-Muslim countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - for 90 days, including dual nationals, and prioritizes refugee claims on the basis of religious persecution.

Haywood also compared Trump's order to actions by Obama. Breitbart compared Trump's action to a 2011 move by the Obama administration in a story entitled FLASHBACK: Obama Suspended Iraq Refugee Program for Six Months Over Terrorism Fears in 2011. In a post entitled Journalists Melt Down, Cry Over Trump Refugee Executive Order, the Daily Caller notes that Obama "did the same thing to Iraqi refugees", linking to a November 2015 post on the Federalist. Trump noted this move by Obama in his own statement on the ban.

In a statement on Monday, Obama rejected this attempt by the Trump administration to draw comparisons with his administration's move in 2011 to impose more stringent checks on Iraqi refugees after two Iraqis were charged with terrorism offenses in Kentucky.

Unlike Trump's order, the Obama policy applied only to Iraqi refugees and never specifically prohibited entry, according to the Associated Press. Former Obama administration officials have denied it amounted to a ban. "While the flow of Iraqi refugees slowed significantly during the Obama administration's review, refugees continued to be admitted to the United States during that time, and there was not a single month in which no Iraqis arrived here," Jon Finer wrote in Foreign Policy. "In other words, while there were delays in processing, there was no outright ban."

Both Breitbart and the Daily Caller published stories which argued that the Majority Of World's Muslims Untouched By Trump Visa Ban", as a headline on the latter site from Saturday read.

A video from Paul Joseph Watson on InfoWars, a conspiracy-fueled political site founded by Alex Jones, utilized similar arguments, with the caption: "It's not a Muslim ban, you virtue signaling morons."

Another post on Breitbart described the New York federal judge who granted the stay, Ann Donnelly, as "Obama-appointed" and "Schumer-allied". A story on the site about the protests against the order published on Saturday, the headline described the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a "terror-tied" group that is "causing chaos, promoting protests & lawsuits as Trump protects nation".

As Slate pointed out, a Fox News post on Facebook featuring remarks from Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, was widely shared on the social media site.

On his program on Friday, Fox commentator Sean Hannity described the executive order as a means "to keep America safe when it comes to taking in refugees - in other words, extreme vetting".

On Monday, there were a number of stories from sites such as the Daily Caller, InfoWars and Fox News noting Senator Chuck Schumer's tearful denunciation of the order and Trump's tweet on " the tears of Senator Schumer " and his remark calling them "fake tears".


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Derby Telegraph


February 25, 2017 Saturday


PAULINE LATHAM'S RESPONSE TO BARRAGE OF CRITICISM OF HER COMMENTS


SECTION: NEWS:OTHER; Pg. 4-5


LENGTH: 672 words


YESTERDAY, during a speech in the House about refugees from Syria in Greece and Italy, I defended our Government - which has spent over £2.3 billion in the region to help the refugees fleeing from Syria. It did that because it believes those refugees are safer and happier remaining in the region, speaking their own language in a region where the customs and lifestyle are similar to the ones they have grown up with.

I said yesterday that 'I understand the sentiments of what people say but I think that we should stop being so sentimental and look at what is the best thing to do for these families and children, which is to keep them in the region - and that is what this Government are doing'. By this statement - which has been misconstrued by many - I meant that it is fine to be sympathetic or compassionate but that, without a considered plan to help the refugees, it is just words. The assumption by many taking part in the debate was that this country has done nothing to help the refugees in European countries, which is untrue. For example, in Greece alone we have spent £28 million through partners such as UNHCR, which has reached 250,000 people. 

Many taking part in the debate also talked about us only taking 350 children. That is wrong as well. Last year about 8,000 came into this country and at the moment there are approximately 4,500 unaccompanied children being looked after by local authorities.

Far from doing nothing, which many participants in yesterday's debate would have us believe, in 2016 we transferred over 900 unaccompanied children from other EU countries, including more than 750 from France as part of the UK's support for the Calais camp clearance.

UK aid to the International Committee of the Red Cross supported activities including family reunification and the secondment of child protection specialists to work with UNICEF in Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia.

Almost immediately after my speech, articles went out in the press which only quoted the phrase 'stop being so sentimental' and implied that I had no concern at all refugees, which is completely untrue.

I care a great deal about refugees and the appalling plight they face. I have visited two Jordanian refugee camps and one in Turkey and have spoken to refugee children.

I did that out of concern for them, not a lack of it. Indeed I was at the speech in the first place because I care about their plight, and want to consider the best way to help them.

What I intended to imply, which might hopefully be clearer from the entirety of my comment (in which I very clearly state 'we should stop being so sentimental' in order to 'look at what is the best thing to do for these families and children') is that we need to analyse the situation objectively and logically in order to do what is best for the children and families.

That does not mean that we do not show emotion, but it does mean we do not make snap judgements which will ultimately do more harm than good.

Personally, I believe the best thing for many refugees is that they remain in the region. The Government's position is the same. You may disagree with that position, as is your right but almost all of the criticism I have received is not about whether children are safer remaining in the region, it is about whether or not I care about refugees, which I do.

I am very proud of Britain's record in resettling thousands of children from Syria over the previous few years, and champion the fact that by the end of Parliament we will have resettled 20,000 Syrian nationals through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme, and a further 3,000 of the most vulnerable children and their families from the Middle East and North Africa.

I also believe, though, that the best thing for many refugees is to be given aid in countries other than the UK and taking greater number of children can lead to more and more taking perilous journeys away from where they are, which leaves them in the hands of merciless traffickers and may lead to their death.


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Bradford Telegraph and Argus


May 15, 2017 Monday


Free events are being held in Bradford to mark Refugee Week


BYLINE: Jo Winrow


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 564 words


A VARIED programme of events will be taking place next month to celebrate the contribution that refugees make to the city and promote understanding of why people seek sanctuary.

The national festival Refugee Week is being marked in Bradford from June 18 to 24 and a planning group is hoping to put the city on the map, with details of refugee resources available locally. 

Deb Collett of Artworks Creative Communities and Planning Group member said: "Absolutely every event during the festival is free, that's because of the level of support and solidarity that so many different organisations throughout Bradford have shown and is also thanks to some of the grant funding that we've received to support some of the events.

"There are 39 organisations involved, including venues that have made us welcome, people who are producing workshops, some of the schools that are participating in the Schools of Sanctuary programme, from people that have given financial donations, and the organisations from whom the Bradford Refugee Week Planning Group is drawn. It's a real broad base of organisations right across the district

"In terms of events, there are three different exhibitions, with the main one being Our Shared Future which is the theme of the entire national Refugee Week. There are a whole host of community-based events that are aimed primarily to welcome refugees and asylum seekers or are organised by them, and they are open to others as well.

"There are a number of events that are looking at the issues surrounding why people seek sanctuary, and they vary from a discussion on international activism to Bradford Amnesty International putting on an event on the Saturday.

"And then there is a fantastic range of films throughout the week. We've got six different film shows, ranging from Citizen Reporting from Syria, to a film at Bradford Cathedral, Cry of Love."

Some of the organisations have been involved in Refugee Week events for a number of years, such as BEACON, City of Sanctuary, Refugee Forum and Bradford Community Broadcasting. And this year Speakers' Corner, the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford Literature Festival, Freedom Studios and others, are involved for the first time.

BEACON will be holding it's long-running Walk for Justice sponsored walk from the city to Leeds to raise awareness of issues facing asylum seekers on June 21. In addition Bradford City of Sanctuary is presenting Our Shared Future, an art exhibition, curated by Mary Blacka at Bradford University's Gallery II throughout the week.

She said: "There will be work from schools, art students and established artists, including refugees and asylum seekers. The theme, Our Shared Future, has produced some thought-provoking work, including photographs by Jax Griffin, illustrating just what asylum seekers can buy with their weekly allowance of £35 and Get a Grip, a wall-hanging produced by refugee women."

There will also be the Lunar Lunch before the Launch, at Delius Arts and Culture Centre, Great Horton Road, a communal meal for those breaking the fast.as the week coincides with Ramadan this year.

Refugee groups around the city will also be organising social events, parties and picnics, and sharing stories throughout the week.

Programmes and leaflets detailing all the events available are being distributed, and a full list is available on the national refugeeweek.org.uk website.


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 4:15 AM GMT 


Did Trump give Turnbull the finger? U.S. President's body language during first call with Australian PM suggests things were NOT going well


BYLINE: CHRIS PLEASANCE and OLLIE GILLMAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 737 words



It's a photograph that's taken the internet by storm - President Donald Trump appearing to raise his middle finger during his tense first telephone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 

The President is reported to have given Turnbull a dressing down after the Australian leader brought up a controversial refugee deal agreed with the Obama administration - and Trump's body language suggests he was fuming.

In a black-and-white picture taken inside the Oval Office on Sunday, Trump appears to be throwing a middle finger while speaking with the prime minister. 

Scroll down for video 

The image shows the President behind his desk while holding the White House phone in his left hand.

Trump is resting his arm on the table, while touching his left temple with his middle finger, making it appear as if he is swearing at the camera.

The amusing detail was revealed after multiple White House sources leaked details of the phone call to the Washington Post.

It is claimed that Trump was furious with Turnbull when he pressed over an agreement signed with former president Barack Obama to transport 1,250 refugees from from Nauru and Manus Island to the US.

Trump allegedly branded it 'the worst deal ever', saying that the United States appeared to be getting nothing from it.

Trump is also reported to have told Turnbull their talk was 'the worst call by far' with any world leader, following supposedly fruitful conversations with the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump then cut the call short just 25 minutes into an allotted hour-long slot as he hung up on Turnbull, according to the reports.

That did not stop Turnbull from trumpeting his 'achievement', saying that Trump had agreed to honour the deal.

But the White House has since walked back the comments, saying the President is 'still considering' the agreement.

Trump also tweeted about the agreement, saying it was a 'dumb deal' and promising to 'study' it.

Others pointed to Trump's language during the call - saying he 'intended' to honour it but would subject all refugees to 'extreme vetting' - as indications that he was planning to back out of it. 

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said. 

Given the opportunity to deny the reports, Turnbull refused to do so, saying instead that he would 'always stand up for Australia.'

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House claimed the two leaders 'emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship'. 

Trump has taken a firm stance on refugees since taking office, issuing an executive order banning immigration to the US from seven predominantly Muslim nations - Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan. He has also refused to take refugees from war-torn Syria.

The Australian prime minister had previously refused to criticise Trump over the refugee deal. 

WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIA-US REFUGEE DEAL?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island. 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres.

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban.

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'.

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.


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Express Online


February 3, 2017 Friday 1:26 PM GMT 


Theresa May pledges extra £30MILLION to protect refugees as UK contribution soars to £100M


BYLINE: Vickiie Oliphant


LENGTH: 851 words


THERESA May has revealed a package of more than £30 million in UK aid to protect refugees from trafficking and violence.

GETTY

The UK has now contributed more than £100 million to tackling the migrant crisis

The prime minister announced the new funding at a European Union summit in Malta today.

The sum will bring the total UK humanitarian support in response to the Mediterranean migrant crisis to more than £100 million since October 2015. 

Related articles Italy strikes deal with Libya in bid to stop migrants entering Europe Putin to turn on 'refugee tap' to send migrants to EU and DESTROY bloc

However it means refugees heading to Europe after fleeing war-torn countries such as Iraq and Syria will be urged to settle in Asia and Latin America instead.

The move is based on an existing scheme run by the United Nation's refugee agency the UNHCR, but it is the first time Britain's aid budget has been used to bolster it.

PA

Theresa May's pledge came during an informal summit in Malta today

PA

Cash will go towards measures to protect vulnerable migrants

UK funding has already helped countries like Greece and the Balkan states as they struggle to deal with the millions of migrants crossing their borders each year, fleeing war zones in a desperate bid to reach mainland Europe. 

Along with supporting border controls, cash has been used to help integrate refugees - many of which are Muslim - into local communities and society.

Now Theresa May has pledged an extra £30 million to support the crisis - and will use the financial boost to offer assistance to countries in Asia and Latin America in return for these states taking on refugees.

Through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Emerging Resettlement Countries Joint Support Mechanism , countries that do not have the necessary infrastructure and systems in place to receive new arrivals will be help to put the required facilities in place.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel said: "Global Britain is stepping up its support for the most vulnerable refugees who are at risk and need our help.

"Conflict, drought and political upheaval have fuelled protracted crises and driven mass migration. We cannot ignore these challenges.

"This latest support from the UK will help those who decide they want to return home to do so safely, protect men, women and children from exploitation, and ensure that those caught in freezing conditions get the basic help they need to survive."

PA

Millions of refugees crossed Germany's borders under Merkel's open door policy

And the package will also see Britain provide life-saving supplies to protect vulnerable migrants from freezing conditions and the threat of people-trafficking and sexual violence.

But the Prime Minister insisted the focus of the £30m programme was "helping migrants return home rather than risk their lives continuing perilous journeys to Europe".

It is believed the cash boost would provide assistance to refugees and migrants across Greece, the Balkans, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sudan.

However the move risks adding to criticism the Prime Minister is unwilling to accept what is seen as 'Britain's share' of the refugees.

PA

Theresa May has pledged an extra £30 million to support the migrant crisis

Only a few thousand Syrians have been resettled in Britain - and the Government continues to refuse to take part in the EU-wide programme to co-ordinate the continent's response to the crisis.

Government sources stressed that people would only be diverted to countries in Asia and Latin America if they were willing to be resettled there.

In addition to this new package of £30.3 million, the UK has set up an £8 million special protection fund to keep women and girl refugees in the Mediterranean region safe from trafficking, violence and exploitation. 

A further £2million has been pledge towards the humanitarian response inside Libya, and Britain has also vowed to use £2.3 billion for the crisis in Syria.

GETTY

Mrs May said the migrant crisis was the "biggest challenge facing Europe"

REUTERS

Mrs May promised £517,000 towards training for Libyan coastguards

Mrs May told her fellow EU leaders that the migrant crisis was the "biggest challenge facing Europe" during the summit session considering the issue.

She said lessons could be learned from the EU-Turkey deal but stressed it could not be simply replicated with North African countries such as Libya which is the departure point for many vessels risking the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean.

Mrs May promised 600,000 euros to the next training package for the Libyan coastguard.

The Prime Minister also stressed her view that swift returns of those with no right to be in Europe sent a "powerful signal of deterrence", Downing Street said.

Indicating that cooperation would continue beyond Brexit, she insisted that the UK would remain a "reliable partner" to the EU on the agenda.

Related articles ANOTHER MERKEL U-TURN: Germany starts PAYING asylum-seekers to go home Outcry as Angela Merkel given award for open-door migrant policy Merkel calls for MORE EU integration to take on Donald Trump


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Express Online


February 3, 2017 Friday 1:26 PM GMT 


Theresa May pledges extra £30MILLION to protect refugees as UK contribution soars to £100M


BYLINE: Vickiie Oliphant


LENGTH: 695 words


THERESA May has revealed a package of more than £30 million in UK aid to protect refugees from trafficking and violence.

PA

The UK has now contributed more than £100 million to tackling the migrant crisis

The prime minister announced the new funding at a European Union summit in Malta today.

The sum will bring the total UK humanitarian support in response to the Mediterranean migrant crisis to more than £100 million since October 2015. 

Related articles Italy strikes deal with Libya in bid to stop migrants entering Europe Putin to turn on 'refugee tap' to send migrants to EU and DESTROY bloc

However it means refugees heading to Europe after fleeing war-torn countries such as Iraq and Syria will be urged to settle in Asia and Latin America instead.

The move is based on an existing scheme run by the United Nation's refugee agency the UNHCR, but it is the first time Britain's aid budget has been used to bolster it.

PA

Theresa May's pledge came during an informal summit in Malta today

PA

Cash will go towards measures to protect vulnerable migrants

UK funding has already helped countries like Greece and the Balkan states as they struggle to deal with the millions of migrants crossing their borders each year, fleeing war zones in a desperate bid to reach mainland Europe. 

Along with supporting border controls, cash has been used to help integrate refugees - many of which are Muslim - into local communities and society.

Now Theresa May has pledged an extra £30 million to support the crisis - and will use the financial boost to offer assistance to countries in Asia and Latin America in return for these states taking on refugees.

Through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Emerging Resettlement Countries Joint Support Mechanism , countries that do not have the necessary infrastructure and systems in place to receive new arrivals will be help to put the required facilities in place.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel said: "Global Britain is stepping up its support for the most vulnerable refugees who are at risk and need our help.

"Conflict, drought and political upheaval have fuelled protracted crises and driven mass migration. We cannot ignore these challenges.

"This latest support from the UK will help those who decide they want to return home to do so safely, protect men, women and children from exploitation, and ensure that those caught in freezing conditions get the basic help they need to survive."

PA

Millions of refugees crossed Germany's borders under Merkel's open door policy

And the package will also see Britain provide life-saving supplies to protect vulnerable migrants from freezing conditions and the threat of people-trafficking and sexual violence.

But the Prime Minister insisted the focus of the £30m programme was "helping migrants return home rather than risk their lives continuing perilous journeys to Europe".

It is believed the cash boost would provide assistance to refugees and migrants across Greece, the Balkans, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sudan.

However the move risks adding to criticism the Prime Minister is unwilling to accept what is seen as 'Britain's share' of the refugees.

PA

Theresa May has pledged an extra £30 million to support the migrant crisis

Only a few thousand Syrians have been resettled in Britain - and the Government continues to refuse to take part in the EU-wide programme to co-ordinate the continent's response to the crisis.

Government sources stressed that people would only be diverted to countries in Asia and Latin America if they were willing to be resettled there.

In addition to this new package of £30.3 million, the UK has set up an £8 million special protection fund to keep women and girl refugees in the Mediterranean region safe from trafficking, violence and exploitation. 

A further £2million has been pledge towards the humanitarian response inside Libya, and Britain has also vowed to use £2.3 billion for the crisis in Syria.

Related articles ANOTHER MERKEL U-TURN: Germany starts PAYING asylum-seekers to go home Outcry as Angela Merkel given award for open-door migrant policy Merkel calls for MORE EU integration to take on Donald Trump


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chroniclelive.co.uk


January 29, 2017 Sunday 10:21 AM GMT 


Great North Run champ Sir Mo Farah could be barred from US under Trump's Muslim ban;
Sir Mo, who last year clinched a record third consecutive Great North Run crown, has dual nationality


BYLINE: By Steve Robson


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 615 words


Three-time Great North Run winner Sir Mo Farah could be banned from the United States underDonald Trump'snew ban on immigration.

A practising Muslim, Britain's greatest ever Olympian was born in Mogadishu and holds dual British-Somali nationality.

The 33-year-old moved to Britain at the age of eight barely speaking a world of English, before rising to become Britain's most successful athlete with double gold medal wins in 2012 and 2016. 

Sir Mo currently lives and trains in Portland, Oregon, with his family including his wife Rhianna and their four children.

On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order which means no visas can be issued to immigrants from seven mainly-Muslim nations including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

Trump also banned all refugees from entering the US for the next four months, and singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

The order would appear to leave four-time Olympic champion Sir Mo - who last year clinched a record third consecutive Great North Run title - barred from entering the US,reports the Mirror.

There has been no official comment from Sir Mo's camp as yet, although he is reportedly currently training in Ethiopia.

It will pile more pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, who faced a furious backlash after she refused to condemn Trump's ban.

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that May's silence was a "disgrace".

Mo Farah makes history with third consecutive Great North Run triumph

After initially dodging questions about her views on the controversial move, the Prime Minister then insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

As Mrs May declined to speak out, her counterpart in Turkey, a country with a dismal record on human rights, hit out at the US and other international leaders also raised their concerns.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to."

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

Mrs May was pressed repeatedly about her views on the refugee ban during a press conference in Ankara where she had been holding talks with Turkish leaders.

She told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees.

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

Great North Run 2017 ballot now open - apply for world's greatest half marathon

Turkish PM Binali Yildirim hit out at the ban, warning the only way to tackle the refugee crisis was to deal with the reasons they were fleeing.

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is of Iraqi origin but a British citizen, said a US immigration lawyer had confirmed that he would be hit by the ban,

"A sad, sad day to feel like a second class citizen," he said. "Sad day for the USA."

The US president has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months but blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

A 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations has been imposed.


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FinancialWire


June 12, 2017 Monday


Minister Flanagan and MoS McHugh announce airlift of humanitarian supplies into Uganda to help South Sudanese refugees


LENGTH: 653 words


DUBLIN, Ireland -- Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan T.D., and Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Joe McHugh T.D., announced that Ireland is dispatching over 100 tonnes of humanitarian supplies to Uganda to help refugees from South Sudan, who have been forced to flee their homes by continuing conflict, violence and acute hunger. 



These supplies, including tarpaulins for shelter, blankets, cooking sets, and mosquito nets, will be airlifted into Uganda over the coming days [from Sunday]. They will be donated to the United Nations' Refugee Agency, UNHCR, for distribution to over 20,000 South Sudanese people who have recently arrived at new refugee settlements in Arua and Lamwo Districts in northern Uganda.

The total cost to Ireland for these airlifts is EUR500,000, and they are being dispatched from UN Humanitarian Depots in Dubai and Accra, where Ireland pre-positions relief supplies for use in humanitarian crises under our Rapid Response Initiative.

Announcing the airlift, Minister Flanagan said:

"The South Sudan crisis continues to be one of the most severe large-scale humanitarian crises in the world today. I am deeply concerned by the high levels of population displacement both internally and to neighbouring countries, with one in four people now driven from their homes. It is an immense tragedy that 1.9 million people have been forced to flee South Sudan as refugees since the end of 2013.

"Ireland stands firmly with the South Sudanese people, providing significant humanitarian assistance through our Irish Aid programme, totalling EUR46 million since 2012, including EUR11 million last year alone. The airlifts that we are announcing today are the latest in a series of supports provided by Ireland to vulnerable people affected by the South Sudan crisis, and brings to EUR8 million Ireland's total humanitarian assistance to this crisis so far this year. We are supporting our UN and NGO partners' life-saving operations targeting the most vulnerable people both in South Sudan and South Sudanese refugees in the region.

"The Government of South Sudan, countries in the region and the international community must step up efforts to end the cycle of protracted conflict and violence that is driving displacement in and from South Sudan. Ireland, together with our EU and UN partners, will continue to work for a peaceful resolution to the conflict."

Minister McHugh added:

"Uganda is now hosting the largest refugee population in Africa, hosting 930,000 South Sudanese refugees, as well as around 300,000 refugees of other nationalities. I saw first-hand the mammoth scale of needs among refugees when I visited Adjumani in northern Uganda last year. Many arrived with only what they could carry. The international community must work harder to meet the immediate and longer term needs of refugees in Uganda and elsewhere, including not only the provision of shelter, protection, food assistance and access to clean water, but also health care, education and livelihood opportunities in their new communities.

"Our assistance to this crisis needs to be commensurate with the solidarity shown by the Ugandan and other host Governments in the region whose resources are increasingly overstretched and depleted. Ireland commends the Government of Uganda's open-door and progressive refugee policy. The Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees, which will be co-hosted by Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Kampala later this month, is an opportunity to mobilise international support to help the Government of Uganda to carry this load. Ireland will continue to do what it can to support the Government of Uganda in our diplomatic relations and through our aid programme."

Distributed by APO on behalf of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ireland.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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MailOnline


February 25, 2017 Saturday 6:51 PM GMT 


Starbucks' brand perception takes a hit as consumers say they would be less likely to buy its coffee after the company vowed to hire 10,000 refugees 


BYLINE: ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS; Version:5


LENGTH: 541 words



 

Starbucks' pledge to hire refugees in response to President Donald Trump's travel ban may end up hitting the company's pockets.

The Seattle-based coffee chain's 'brand perception' has slipped dramatically since CEO Howard Schultz vowed to hire 10,000 migrants in 75 countries over the next five years, according to the YouGov BrandIndex.

Schultz made the pledge after Trump's executive order banning entry into the US of nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries - Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, and Yemen.

Since then, Trump supporters vowed to boycott Starbucks.

The YouGov BrandIndex is a 'perception tracker' that asks consumers if they 'heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth' that was either positive or negative.

The index found that Starbucks' rating has dropped by two-thirds since late January, when Schultz announced his new policy.

It should be noted that overall, Starbucks has a positive perception. It just isn't as positive as it was before the end of January.

Two days before the announcement, 30 percent of consumers said they would consider buying from Starbucks the next time they wanted coffee.

Since the announcement, that number has dropped to 24 percent.

'We are in business to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time - whether that neighborhood is in a Red State or a Blue State; a Christian country or a Muslim country; a divided nation or a united nation,' Schultz wrote in a letter to his employees on January 20.

'That will not change. You have my word on that.' 

Starbucks isn't the only company that has pledged to hire refugees and absorbed criticism as a result. 

Chobani, the Greek yogurt manufacturer, employs 300 refugees in its factories.

The company's CEO, Hamdi Ulukaya, who himself immigrated from Turkey, has embraced a policy of hiring refugees.

As a result, he has received death threats from xenophobic extremists, according to The New York Times.

Other companies have also expressed a readiness to help resettle refugees.

TripAdvisor, Inc. has set aside $5million over the next three years to helping refugees, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Airbnb announced plans to offer free short-term housing for 100,000 refugees and other displaced people in the next four years. 

It has also pledged $4million to refugee resettlement agencies.

Since the Obama administration reached out to the private sector last year and asked them to do more to provide opportunities for migrants, companies have been hiring them.

Walmart, Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Hilton, and others have hired dozens of refugees, according to Time.

Other companies in the food, farming, hotel, and house-cleaning industry have also hired refugees. 


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The Guardian


January 26, 2017 Thursday 12:49 AM GMT 


Barnaby Joyce says 'not the end of the world' if Australia-US refugee deal falls through;
Australian government insists it will push ahead with resettlement deal despite threat Donald Trump will block refugees from Muslim countries


BYLINE: Paul Karp


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 743 words


Barnaby Joyce has said it would not be the "end of the world" if the United States tears up a deal to resettle refugees in Australia's offshore detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru.

But former immigration minister Scott Morrison and other government officials insist the deal will continue despite suggestions that Donald Trump will order a temporary ban on most refugees and suspend visas for citizens of some Middle Eastern and African countries.

In November the Turnbull government announced the deal for the US to take the refugees, who are mostly from Iran, Syria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iraq, just one week after Trump's election. 

Related: It's hard for me to leave Manus Island without justice: Behrouz Boochani on the US refugee deal

Concerns were immediately raised that Trump's immigration policies were incompatible with the deal, and he would end it despite Australia's commitment to take refugees from camps in Costa Rica.

US officials have already visited Nauru, and visited Manus Island on Friday - just hours before Trump's inauguration - and told refugees that interviews for potential resettlement would begin next month.

Asked on 2GB Radio on Thursday if the deal was now in grave doubt, Australia's deputy prime minister said: "Let's see."

Joyce expressed hope the deal would go ahead, describing it as "well-planned and well thought out".

"In all of this we have a shared responsibility across the globe, to have strong borders," he said.

He claimed that although Australia used to be criticised for its refugee policies, other countries now recognised: "The only way we can control this problem is to say 'if you came here of your own volition you have to go back where you came from or certainly you're never going to get to stay here'."

Asked if the deal collapsing would be "the end of the world", Joyce insisted "it's not, of course not".

"It doesn't mean we're going to be changing our position. There's one way you can come to this country: it's with our permission."

Related: US officials visit Manus Island as Australia's refugee deal set to proceed

Joyce did not explain what would happen to more than a thousand refugees in detention on Manus Island and Nauru if they were not accepted by the US, as the Australian government has no other third-party resettlement deal in place.

A government spokesman told Guardian Australia it remains confident that the US-Australian refugee deal would go ahead.

Asked on ABC AM whether Trump blocking refugees from majority Muslim countries, including Syria, would scuttle the deal, Morrison referred the questions to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.

He noted Dutton had made "very positive" comments about the deal's prospects and commended him for what he said was a "very important" agreement.

"We have an arrangement, which we've been able to enter into, and obviously we'll continue to work that arrangement," the treasurer said.

"The president is the president of the United States, they will make the decisions as it applies to things on their side.

"But in the meantime, we will continue to pursue those arrangements."

The vast majority of the people held in Australia's offshore detention regime have been found to have a valid claim to refugee status because they have demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution in their homelands and are legally owed protection.

The US resettlement deal is crucial to the Australian government's plan to reduce the populations in and ultimately close its regional offshore detention centres.

Over the last three years the remote facilities have been plagued by reports of shocking conditions, poor management and deteriorating mental health of asylum seekers.

Related: The Nauru files: cache of 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention

The Guardian's publication of the Nauru files showed the devastating trauma and abuse inflicted on children on Nauru.

An asylum seeker was beaten to death by guards in a wave of unrest on Manus Island in February 2014, and on Nauru in May 2016 an asylum seeker self-immolated in front of staff from the UN high commission for refugees.

In April last year the detention centre on Manus Island was ruled " illegal and unconstitutional " by Papua New Guinea's supreme court. However, the centre continues to operate, albeit with some minor cosmetic changes to the detention regimen, nearly 10 months later.


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Screen International


May 17, 2017 Wednesday


'Sea Sorrow': Cannes Review


LENGTH: 618 words


Vanessa Redgrave delivers a thoughtful documentary on the global refugee crisis

Dir: Vanessa Redgrave UK 2016. 74 mins

The personal and the political are carefully intertwined in Sea Sorrow, the directorial debut of veteran actor and human rights activist Vanessa Redgrave. Reflecting on the global refugee crisis, the 80 year-old Redgrave combines reportage, historical context, memoir and agitprop to create a thoughtful documentary that serves as a call to embrace a shared humanity with the vulnerable and displaced. A Cannes platform will raise the profile of a modest production that should find its audience at festival screenings and one-off events allowing further discussion of the issues it raises.

Sincere and wide-ranging but never hectoring 

Sea Sorrow is a continuation of the recent work Redgrave has created with her producer/son Carlo Nero through their Dissent Projects and follows on from documentaries Wake Up World (2005), The Killing Fields (2011) and Bosnia Rules (2014). It is a response to the death of three year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi and to the belief that the British government was failing to take a fair share of refugees from around the world.

Initially, it has the feel of a more substantial television news report. Individual refugees from Afghanistan and Guinea tell stories of lengthy journeys to escape war-torn homelands and reach the safety of Europe. There is footage of rubble-strewn wastelands where once stood the homes of thousands, and scenes of London marchers proudly proclaiming that " Refugees Are Welcome Here".

Redgrave keeps everything simple and direct, fading to black between testimonies and creating links through close-ups of shimmering gold foil. Archive footage is used sparingly but effectively and includes Eleanor Roosevelt commending the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights in 1948.

The film gradually expands in scope and ambition. A wider understanding of the refugee issue is provided by contrasting the present with events during World War Two. Lord Alf Dubs recalls escaping from Prague as part of the Kinder Transport in 1939 and starting a new life in London. Redgrave remembers being a refugee in her own country when she was evacuated from London in 1940. Lest that period is seen as a golden age of compassion, Emma Thompson reads a 1938 letter from Sylvia Pankhurst expressing dismay at the British government's staunch refusal to accept two Jewish refugees, despite the assurance that she will provide for their welfare and they will not accept any paid employment.

In many respects, nothing has changed and the timeless nature of the issue is underlined again by a scene from The Tempest, performed by Ralph Fiennes, that gives the film it's title. Shakespeare's words are used to remind us that the calamity of exile can befall anyone.

Redgrave cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as cornerstones of protection for refugees and pays tribute to the valiant efforts of NGOs from Amnesty International to Safe Passage and Citizens UK. Her lifelong commitment to refugees is a constant theme from her efforts as a drama student in 1956 helping those who had fled Hungary to her more recent visits to the "jungle" in Calais and refugee camps in Beirut.

Sincere and wide-ranging but never hectoring, Sea Of Sorrow is a worthwhile attempt to shine a light on a complex issue and to find reasons for hope in a situation that seems eternally disheartening.

Production Company: Dissent Projects Ltd

International sales: Autlook salma@autlookfilms.com

Producer: Carlo Nero

Cinematographer: Andrew Dearden

Editor: Folasade Oyeleye

Featuring: Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes


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MailOnline


February 19, 2017 Sunday 1:29 AM GMT 


Heartwarming moment Canadian Mounties help Somali family enter Canada 


BYLINE: JORDAN GASS-POORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 692 words



Heartwarming photos capture the moment Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) greet a family of asylum seekers from Somalia who braved sub-zero temperatures to walk across the US border into Canada.  

The officials were at the US-Canada border near Hemmingford in Quebec when they stopped the young Somali family of three as they illegally crossed over.

Family members dragged luggage and pushed their toddler in a stroller through the snow before officers detained them, per standard procedure for refugee claimants.   

'The RCMP aren't there to treat them like bandits. They're here to apply the law', retired Sûreté du Québec police officer and Hemmingford resident François Doré told  CBCNews. 

They will go before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada tribunal at an unspecified date to apply for refugee status. 

The small town of Hemmingford has seen a surge of asylum seekers since President Donald Trump took office and instated a ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia. 

Though key parts of the ban have been blocked by a federal judge, there is still confusion. 

Asylum seekers from around the world have shown up here cold and hungry from difficult border crossings in the dead of winter. 

'Sometimes when you're left with no options and you're looking for a better life for yourself, people do take risks', Mohamud Noor, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota told Global News. 

'It will increase rather than decrease ... This is not going to reduce'.

The Canadian government does not have statistics on the number of people seeking refugee status who enter the country illegally. 

But Sergeant Harold Pfleiderer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told The New York Times that 'there has been an increase in illegal migration in Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia, with the largest increase being seen in Quebec'.  

The reason they are crossing into Canada is because the country is part of an agreement that bars refugees that have already arrived in another 'safe' country from trying to trade up to another country. 

This has put refugees and asylum seekers already in the US in a tough position, since many of them have become fearful about what will happen to them if Trump's travel ban is reinstated, or if he crafts an even tougher executive order.  

The only way for them to gain refugee status in Canada is to physically cross the border illegally.

In fact, as soon as they arrive in the country, some people have been tracking down police officers to arrest them.

Because they need to report to the authorities within three days of entering Canada in order to claim refugee status, some have been banging on locals' doors to use the phone at 2 or 3am.

'It started with a trickle and has now increased to a flood stage', resident Brenda Piett said. 

'Some people are scared, nervous. Locking their doors. This town most people never locked their doors. But recently they are'. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has admitted that he is 'very concerned' with the amount of asylum seekers crossing into rural areas. 

But Trudeau did not say whether he would seek to suspend Canada's agreement with the US and allow these people to apply for refugee status at official borders.

The majority of these crossings have been happening on the New York-Quebec border, which authorities attribute to its closeness to the major East Coast cities.

Some even take Ubers all the way up from New York City to the border so they can cross over. 


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Belfast Telegraph


February 4, 2017 Saturday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Memo to Trump's critics: there's nothing wrong with concern about the security of your own citizens;
SATURDAY OPINION


BYLINE: David Quinn


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 25


LENGTH: 903 words


When German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders of Germany to all refugees in 2015, initially I thought it was a great idea. I've amended that opinion now, in light of the fact that the policy was very badly thought out.

For a long time, I supported the West accepting as many Christian refugees as possible from Syria and elsewhere. Why? Because they are a particularly persecuted group. Yes, it's true that it's mainly Muslims being killed in Syria and Iraq, but that's because they are overwhelmingly Muslim countries. But within those countries, Christians, like the Yazidis in Iraq, are particularly vulnerable. 

I've now changed my mind about accepting as many Christian refugees as possible, because I've spoken to Christian leaders from the region. They don't want the Christian presence in the Middle East, which is older than the presence of Islam, to disappear completely.

What I'm saying here is that these things are complicated and don't allow easy, knee-jerk answers.

I don't agree with US President Donald Trump's decision to temporarily stop refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries entering America. I'm all for properly vetting refugees, but I think he could have reviewed the current vetting procedure without ordering the temporary halt.

At the same time, the reaction of his critics has been wholly disproportionate. To listen to them, you would think he had ordered the rounding up and expulsion of all American Muslims.

Nothing Mr Trump has done, or will do, remotely compares to the type of human rights abuses that routinely take place in countries like China and Saudi Arabia. China and Saudi Arabia are rich, so we will talk about their human rights record in only a very muted way.

But we expect higher standards of America, I hear you www.say.No, when it comes to human rights we must demand the same standards of everyone. What must a political dissident in China think of the outrage Mr Trump's temporary banning order has caused compared to the lack of outrage at much worse abuses perpetrated by the Chinese government? A country's refugee policy must balance many considerations. Two of the chief ones are care for refugees and the security of your own citizens. Both concerns are entirely worthy.

When Ms Merkel threw open Germany's borders, she was thinking almost entirely of care for refugees. When Mr Trump ordered his temporary ban, he was thinking almost entirely of the security of American citizens.

I don't think either of these concerns is intrinsically more moral than the other. I think both Mr Trump and Mrs Merkel have struck the wrong balance. I think Mrs Merkel was paying too little attention to security and Mr Trump is paying too much attention to it.

Mrs Merkel's policy, which caused continent-wide chaos, has barely come in for criticism here - and neither has Sweden's similar policy for that matter. The great and the good here regard German and Swedish policies as very generous. And that is that.

Both Germany and Sweden ended up dramatically applying the brakes to their very generous policies. This wasn't simply because of pressure from "xenophobes" and "Islamophobes". It's also because their policies were having bad effects on the ground.

In Sweden, for example, they found lots of unaccompanied minors entering the country only for many to disappear, with the very real possibility they were disappearing into sex slavery.

In both Germany and Sweden, there has been an increase in sex crimes related to immigration. In Germany, refugees, illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers are responsible for about twice as many sex crimes as their numbers in the population would suggest.

In Sweden, according to journalist Tove Lifvendahl: "There have been reports of Islamic State recruitment drives, not just in public places, but inside Swedish government programmes." He said the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet "exposed how some official schemes had been infiltrated by jihadists".

This is exactly the kind of thing Mr Trump is concerned about and this is without even mentioning truck attacks, bombings and shootings in various countries.

In fact, for six months in 2011, Barack Obama brought a near-total halt to processing refugees from Iraq, because a number of jihadists had managed to get into America disguised as refugees. This decision by Mr Obama didn't cause so much as a ripple.

That's because the media watchdogs were practically asleep when Mr Obama was in the White House. They are barking madly now, as they always do when a Republican is in residence.

As for Mr Obama, to my mind even his policy towards refugees erred too much on the side of security. From 2011 to 2014, he allowed barely 200 Syrian refugees into the US. This increased to 1,682 in 2015 and about 13,000 last year. That's a drop in the ocean compared with Germany or Sweden, which are at the opposite extreme.

So, a good refugee policy is morally obliged to strike the right balance between competing goods. Mrs Merkel's policy threw Europe, never mind Germany, into chaos and gave no thought to security. Mr Trump is making the opposite mistake.

But there is absolutely nothing wrong, in itself, with being concerned about the security of your own people. The reaction to Mr Trump's decision pays no attention to this perfectly legitimate consideration.

In fact, any leader who pays no attention to the security of their own citizens is so irresponsible they deserve to lose power.


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walesonline.co.uk


April 5, 2017 Wednesday 9:30 PM GMT 


Politicians want to turn Wales into a 'nation of sanctuary' for refugees;
A National Assembly committee says Wales should lead the world on helping asylum seekers


BYLINE: By Martin Shipton


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 666 words


Wales should be the world's first 'nation of sanctuary' for refugees and asylum seekers, a National Assembly committee has declared.

The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee heard that in 2016 one in every 113 humans was either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum - greater than the populations of the UK, France or Italy.

Asylum seekers are growing salad leaves for restaurants in a Cardiff park 

Last year, with an intensifying conflict in Syria and huge uncertainty across countries in the region, there were more displaced people in the world than at any other time in history.

"The constant news cycle of images and stories of people escaping war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and other countries brings home the tragedy of current world events and the stories people have told us during this inquiry have been both harrowing and distressing but ultimately inspiring," said committee chair John Griffiths, the Labour AM for Newport East.

"As we heard those who survive the conflict, boat crossings, people traffickers and countless miles of travelling to reach the UK, including unaccompanied children, are likely to have experienced severely traumatic events which leave lasting psychological scars.

"We were told that a phrase often used by refugees and asylum seekers is 'I used to be someone'. It is critical that there is the right support available to them when they reach Wales so that they can participate fully in Welsh life and have fulfilling lives in their new communities."

This woman gave up her career and relationship to travel the world without money

Mr Griffiths said that at the core of the report was a belief that Wales could be the world's first nation of sanctuary, repairing some of the damage done to people through no fault of their own, and to help them be someone once again.

Even before the committee's report was published its work has made an impact on the way services for refugees and asylum seekers are planned and delivered.

Prompted by the committee's inquiry the Welsh Government has expanded the role of its Operations Board beyond the Syrian refugees programme to cover all refugees and asylum seekers.

In addition Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, which is responsible for asylum accommodation in Wales, has engaged with the Welsh Refugee Coalition about the quality of housing and complaints procedures.

The committee wants to see further action and an updated and an improved strategic approach through reviewing the Refugee and Asylum Seeker Delivery Plan.

Pro refugee march in Cardiff

Members heard that unaccompanied asylum seeking children were one of the most vulnerable groups of children in Wales - often at greater risk of exploitation, abuse, gender-based violence and trafficking.

They want the Welsh Government to establish a guardianship service for them, to ensure there is capacity and capability across Wales to undertake age assessments, and to set minimum standards for mental health support.

To help refugees and asylum seekers integrate into local communities, the committee believes the role of community cohesion co-ordinators should be expanded. It also wants to see improvements in the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages teaching.

Welsh aid worker speaks of his heartbreak after interviewing children caught up in Syria's war

There should also be more support for asylum seekers throughout the asylum process, in particular addressing their housing needs. The committee is calling for better monitoring and resolution of complaints about asylum accommodation, a revised asylum accommodation contract, and ensuring asylum seekers' landlords are registered and inspected.

Support should also continue for both refugees and failed asylum seekers after the asylum process, through action to prevent destitution, help for refugees to find long-term accommodation, and better access to education and employment.

The committee also wants to see improvements to the advice available during the asylum process.


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The Guardian(London)


February 10, 2017 Friday 12:07 PM GMT 


Greek refugee camps remain dangerous and inadequate, say aid workers;
Greece has received £268bn but migrants are still living in sewage-flooded tents and many children have no protection


BYLINE: Rachel Banning-Lover


SECTION: GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS NETWORK


LENGTH: 1483 words


Feeling unsafe and vulnerable, having limited access to water and electricity, still living in tents; these were just some of the concerns picked up by researchers speaking to refugees who are living in Greek camps.

Related: Secret aid worker: Greece has exposed the aid community's failures

The report, out last week from the Refugee Rights Data Project, argues that refugees' human rights have been breached because they do not have access to a standard of living adequate for their personal security, health and wellbeing.

This is one of a number of red flags that continue to be raised by aidworkers and researchers, pointing out that a year-and-a-half on from the start of the crisis, a number of camps in Greece still don't meet basic humanitarian standards. According to one British aid worker, who had previously worked in the refugee camps in Afghanistan, conditions in Greece are worse. 

From the summer of 2015, Greece had become a gateway to Europe for thousands of Syrians fleeing the war in their homeland. Finally, after months of wrangling and confusion, and as countries around Greece closed their borders to refugees, the EU signed a deal with Turkey on 20 March 2016 which shut the doors of Europe and decreed that refugees arriving in Greece would now be sent back to Turkey if their asylum claims were rejected.

The result has been confusion. Overcrowding is the biggest single issue for many camps. Moria reception centre on the Greek island of Lesbos has a capacity of 1,500 people, for example. But recent estimates suggest it is housing more than 4,000 people because of huge bottlenecks in the asylum process. Samos centre has a capacity of 700-800 people. In December it was housing 1,400, according to one Samos-based aid worker.

Many refugees in these camps and others continue to endure below freezing temperatures in thin summer tents, despite the fact that nearly (EURO)90m has been disbursed by the EU to help during the winter months.

"[Six months ago] people were saying it was a waste of money to change all these tents to containers because the refugees wouldn't be staying here for long [before being returned to Turkey or relocated to another country] but now they really need them," said Edith Chazelle, a former camp management coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council, describing how the tents flood when it rains and offer little privacy or security.

The camps also often lack basic amenities and are in unsuitable sites. Natasha Sim from the International Rescue Committee said the camps are more overcrowded than ones she's worked in in other countries but are also situated in worse places - former army bases and disused warehouses. "We have come across water sources contaminated with high rates of nitrate in some warehouse sites" she said.

Steve Moore is a British builder who volunteered in a camp on the island of Thessaloniki and was shocked by the conditions. "A woman asked if I could stop the excess waste water from the portable toilets running into her tent. I couldn't believe nothing had been done about it as soon as it was seen - this was raw sewage running into a tent in which a family was expected to live. Then I was asked to fill up all the holes in the women's bathroom because it was possible for snakes to get in - they killed a snake nearly every other day I was there."

With winter temperatures in Greece reaching -14C, the lack of heating in some camps is leading to serious fire risks. A fire left an eight-year-old boy in a life-threatening condition in Oreokastro camp in October. The boy's mother had left a hotplate on in an attempt to heat her tent and keep the family warm, according to the International Organisation of Migration. A fire also killed an adult and a child in Moria camp in November. Police found that a gas canister, used for cooking or heating inside the tent, started the fire.

Florian Horsch, from volunteer group Soup and Socks, is not surprised by these incidents. He said current camp conditions are accidents waiting to happen. "In October at Kastikas, we had strong winds that caused concrete pillars to collapse on to tents, smashing a buggy with a young baby in it. The baby boy was catapulted out of his carriage."

Tensions are high among refugees over the conditions. "We've had some really shocking incidents, all the administrative containers being burnt down in Helios, some really violent protests, and a guy set himself alight in a hotspot in Samos in protest at the conditions," said one Samos-based NGO worker. There are growing anxieties about safety, as Moore discovered, after locks that he had installed on the toilets were taken by refugee women who were too scared to sleep without a lock on their door.

For Pru Waldorf, a long-term volunteer with Calais Action in Samos, it's the things she can't see that worry her most, describing how there is no NGO presence in her camp after 8pm. "No one's really keeping track of the children and women going missing and people smuggling."

Funding is available

The situation has been worsened by the impact of the EU-Turkey deal, an agreement signed in March 2016 that stated for every Syrian refugee on the Greek islands who is returned to Turkey, a Syrian asylum seeker in Turkey will be resettled in Europe.

The Greek authorities have struggled to implement the deal on the ground though, meaning many migrants who arrived on the islands after 19 March have ended up being detained for months, rather than days. Thus, camps which had initially been designed for short-term use and set up haphazardly in often remote locations without electricity, sewage and water access, suddenly had long-term residents.

"Overnight 38 or so random sites popped up and we've now got to retrospectively improve the quality of those sites, so it's been more difficult than in other places," said the British aid worker who had previously worked in Afghanistan.

The funding would appear to be more than adequate. Greece has received $334,893,372 (£268bn) through the UN's 2016 Inter-Agency Appeal. For the 62,711 people currently considered persons of concern, that breaks down to $5,340 (£4,273) per head per year; meanwhile Lebanon, housing roughly 954,000 more refugees, has received $1,051,948,838 (just $1,034, or £827, per person).

Egypt is catering for almost twice as many refugees as Greece with 10 times less funding per head. Costs in Europe are higher, but a growing number of aid workers believe that the greater costs of operating in Greece also stem from the Greek government's indecisiveness, and through the long chain of organisations through which the funding must pass before it reaches the camps.

"There's no ownership of the crisis - the Greek government has failed to identify the gaps it wants NGOs to fill," said Sian Rowbotham, from Norwegian Church Aid. Greek politicians themselves admit there is a lack of political will to bring change. "We want to help but it's like turning a gun to your head because if you improve the situation, more refugees will come," a local government worker in Samos told the Guardian.

In theory, refugees who arrived after the EU-Turkey deal are supposed to be detained no more than 25 days before either being sent back to Turkey or being relocated elsewhere. The reality is refugees are now spending on average eight months to a year in camps.

Maria Stavropoulou, director of the Greek asylum service, acknowledged that the application processing time is too long, but said with 41,000 applications and another 15,000 pending, "six times our 2015 workload", her agency is simply overwhelmed.

Furthermore, the EU is simply not offering enough support to the Greek government. "The rest of the EU wants to outsource its moral responsibility," said one aid worker, describing how the EU relocation scheme for Syrian refugees could have really helped Greece but EU countries have so far only relocated 5% of the total number they promised to take from overstretched Greece and Italy by September 2017.

With Germany recently announcing plans to send refugees back to Greece, there will only be more pressure on these camps and the asylum office. Refugees, aid workers, politicians and the public are now being forced to readjust their expectations of wealthy nations' abilities to protect and provide for the world's most vulnerable people.

"This is Greece where British tourists go on holiday, people expected a better response than they would see in a developing country" explains Rowbotham. "Imagine if it was the UK, would you be comfortable with 50,000 refugees living in tents?," she said. "It would be a national shame. We are from countries where you don't put refugees in tents, that's the bottom line."

Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter.


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The National (Scotland)


April 28, 2017 Friday


Refugee from Nazis repays Christian Aid charity's help


BYLINE: Greg Russell


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 531 words


A SECOND World War refugee from Serbia who came to Scotland 70 years ago has narrated a powerful animated film of his story to help mark Christian Aid Week's 60th anniversary and highlight its commitment to supporting refugees.

Theodor Davidovic, who is now 91, was orphaned as a child and sold into domestic service. He eventually joined the resistance to fight against Germany, but after the war he found himself in refugee camps in Italy and Germany. 

At the age of 22, Davidovic escaped the refugee camps and made his way to Scotland, but he says he never forgot the food parcels he received from Christian Aid, and has supported the charity through the 60th year of its fundraising campaign, Christian Aid Week. Initially, he worked as a coal miner in Fife and, when he was 26, met his future wife Betty, from Kinglassie, at a dance hall in Kirkcaldy. "When I saw her, my legs went weak," he says.

The couple married in 1953 and now have two sons and four grandchildren. Davidovic ran a successful shoe repair business in Edinburgh for 50 years, but retired when he was 76 to become Betty's full-time carer.

"I came to Scotland as a refugee in 1947 and I am grateful for the sanctuary and safety that I found and I couldn't have been happier," he said.

Of his role as narrator, he adds: "We've had a giggle or two. I say to Betty that she's married to a film star. The rest of my family haven't seen the film yet but I'm looking forward to showing it to them."

Over the 60 years of Christian Aid Week, Davidovic has run local youth club events, barbecues and plant sales to raise money for the charity, because he feels "I owe my life" to the cause.

He said: "Christianity is not only to come and pray and sing hymns. It is to put your belief in actions - helping somebody that needs your help and showing love and compassion to the wider world.

"When I was walking in the world as a refugee, there was at least peace in the world but now there is war and it is not people's fault that they are refugees."

As the charity marks the anniversary, it is inviting people to join them - and Theodor - standing in solidarity with refugees around the world.

Tens of millions of people across the globe are forced from their homes due to war, conflict and disaster, and many are forced to make life- threatening journeys in search of a safe place to call home. While most refugees today seek sanctuary in Africa, Asia and Latin America, around one million crossed into Europe in 2015. With borders now closed to refugees, thousands are stranded - and in need of urgent help.

Sally Foster-Fulton, head of Christian Aid Scotland, said: We are a global family and everyone is precious.

"Theodor's lifelong commitment to loving his neighbour is an inspiration to us all and on this 60th anniversary of Christian Aid Week we celebrate all the people who make our vital work possible.

"There is so much work still to do. Millions of people still have no safe place to call home - men, women and children, our brothers and sisters - forced to flee conflict, danger and persecution. This Christian Aid Week we invite everyone to join us, standing in solidarity and support with refugees and those living in poverty."


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Express Online


January 9, 2017 Monday 12:00 AM GMT 


JAILED: Afghan refugee who raped sleeping woman after she let him stay in her flat


BYLINE: Alix Culbertson


LENGTH: 574 words


AN AFGHAN refugee who raped a woman after she let him stay in her flat has been jailed for three and a half years.

Getty

A young woman was raped by a refugee she let stay in her home

The 26-year-old, who has not been named, was found guilty of sneaking into the 20-year-old woman's bed after they visited the Long Night of Museums event in Cologne, where museums stay open late.

He attempted to make advances towards her hours before the rape but she had told him to stay away. 

Judges in Cologne had previously handed the refugee a two and a half year sentence in June last year but his lawyers had demanded an acquittal, which ended up with a year being added on to his jail-term.

Related articles Merkel savaged over migrant murder of EU official's daughter Migrant tries to re-enter Germany just HOURS after being deported

The court heard the man, who came to Germany two years ago, had performed sexual acts on the woman as she slept.

He stopped only after she woke up and pushed him away before fleeing to her brother's room in the same apartment.

Getty

Germans protested after hundreds of women were sexually assaulted in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015

Judges said the act was a "massive breach of trust" as the woman had been very supportive of the accused as she took him into her home after being put in contact with him through an internet group called Flüchtinge Wilkomment .

The Afghan's lawyers argued the woman had hypnopompic hallucinations, where people see visions in between sleeping and waking.

They accused her of imagining the rape and also said another guest in the flat could have carried out the rape.

But the judge said: "The bottom line is that we can not have any doubts about the victims' claims."

The criminal was handed a three and a half year prison sentence and ordered to pay £8,685 in costs.

His lawyers said they will appeal the sentence and demanded a review of the outcome.

Getty

Maria Ladenburger was raped and murdered by an Afghan refugee last year

Getty

Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy has been heavily criticised

There have been several high-profile rape cases carried out by refugees in Germany over the past two years since Angela Merkel adopted an open-door migrant policy in 2015, allowing more than 1.1million refugees to enter the country.

At the beginning of December, German officials revealed the daughter of a high-ranking European Union official was raped and drowned by an Afghan refugee in the university city of Freiburg, southwest Germany, in October.

Maria Ladenburger's body was found in the River Dreisam and the 17-year-old migrant was arrested after police found Maria's DNA on a scarf as well as a strand of the man's hair near the path.

He admitted carrying out the attack and will be sentenced this year.

Related videos Teenage Afghan refugee attacks people with axe on German train... Angela Merkel: It's a sad day for Germany Germany- Blaze breaks out at refugee shelter in Hamburg

Ms Ladenburger reportedly worked in her spare time helping out in refugee homes in Freiburg.

But it is unclear whether she ever met her murderer before he took her life.

The dead girl's father is Dr Clemens Ladenburger, a lawyer who works as the right hand man to the legal director of the European Commission.

Related articles Girls aged 13 and 14 sexually assaulted at train station Take back failed asylum seekers or LOSE AID' - Germany issues warning Heroic German dad rescues daughter from Syrian rapist


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Express Online


January 13, 2017 Friday 7:19 AM GMT 


'My life is ruined' Camerawoman who tripped migrants forced into hiding by death threats


BYLINE: Belinda Robinson


LENGTH: 614 words


A HUNGARIAN camerawoman who received worldwide condemnation for tripping up fleeing refugees, including children, has been sentenced to three years probation.

Petra Laszlo, 40, was sentenced on Thursday in the city of Szeged, Hungary, but was not present at the hearing because she has received multiple death threats for her actions, her lawyer said.

Judge Illes Nanasi said that her actions "ran counter to society norms" and had sparked "indignation and outrage" worldwide.  

He rejected her argument that she was trying to protect herself from the asylum seekers who were running towards her.

Getty

Petra Laszlo was caught tripping up refugees as they escape from police

She was sentenced to three years probation but the judge said that her conviction will be dropped if she does not commit any other crimes.

Laszlo got caught up in the life-changing event while she was filming refugees from the Middle East near the border town of Roske on September 8, 2015. 

In chaotic scenes, Laslo, who worked as a camerawoman for N1 TV, became part of the story when she was caught on camera kicking a young refugee girl on purpose. 

Related articles Camerawoman who tripped refugee and kicked child claims she was... Camerawoman who tripped refugee carrying a child to SUE victim

The refugees were running from police after bursting through cordons at a refugee centre near the village of Rosze on the Hungarian-Serbian border. 

As police tried to arrest a man carrying a young boy, she stuck her leg out on purpose and a man fell to the ground with a child in his arms.

Laszlo, a single mother, was fired by N1 TV after video of the event went viral in September 2015.

The court watched the video of the event as it unfolded. A judge later sentenced her.

Getty

The footage of Petra Laszlo tripping migrants was viewed worldwide

In tearful testimony by video link, Laszlo told the court: "It was all over within two seconds, everybody was shouting. It was very frightening."

She has already warned that she plans to appeal the judges decision and has done many interviews in the European press apologising for her actions.

She wrote to newspaper Magyar Nemzet: "I'm just an unemployed mother of small children, who made a bad decision. I am truly sorry." 

["I was only] trying to help police. I pushed him [the man with a child] only because I was afraid. I did not see that there was a child. I'm sorry that it turned out this way," she said in another interview with Russia's Izvestia newspaper in October 2015.

Getty

Reports said the man that Laszlo kicked - Osama Abdul Mohsen - was a member of an Al Qaeda group

"I can definitely say that my life is ruined. It's unlikely that I will be able to find a job and do what I like the most."

Laszlo says that she has now been branded a "heartless, racist, children-kicking camerawoman".

But, in a twist, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party revealed that the man that Laszlo kicked - Osama Abdul Mohsen - was a member of the Al Qaeda like al-Nursa Front.

The intelligence information suggested that he had committed crimes against civilians before fleeing as a refugee.

Mr Mohsen denies the claims.

At the court case, Laszlo's lawyer, Ferec Sipos told AP: "It is not a crime if somebody acts to defend herself...she was in danger and she tried to avert this danger with her actions."

Related videos Switzerland develops new ways to help refugees integrate Germany: Swimming pool near Cologne bans male refugees Refugees suffer FREEZING tempreatures in Vagiohori camp Related articles Catholic leader blasts church over influx of Muslim migrants Anger over plans to turn care home into migrant hostel REVEALED: The SECRET route migrants are using to enter EU


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to 'ship the next Boston bombers' to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 849 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the two allied leaders in just 25 minutes. 

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.  

In response to revelations of the phone conversation, Mr Turnbull said on Thursday that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said. 

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island late last year

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

The US president reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island when the pair spoke on Sunday morning Australia time, Saturday night Washington time.  

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister. 

The Post also reported the president told Mr Turnbull it was his 'intention' to honour the refugee agreement.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal.

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation.

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said.

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that Mr Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 22, 2017 Wednesday 5:35 PM GMT 


Theresa May's closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m windfall for people traffickers';
Refugees are paying an average of£10,000 for guaranteed transfer to the UK


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:3


LENGTH: 1031 words


Theresa May's decision to close down the Government's child refugee scheme early could net people-smuggling gangs as much as £20m in fees from desperate unaccompanied children, MPs have been told.

At the start of this month the Government announced that the so-called "Dubs amendment" scheme would take just 350 unaccompanied child refugees instead of the 3,000 expected when David Cameron agreed to it. The U-turn came shortly after bad publicity surrounding the child refugees in a number of Conservative-supporting newspapers.

Charity representatives called to give evidence to MPs over the policy on Wednesday afternoon said the scheme's cancellation presented a significant profit opportunity for people smugglers taking children from mainland Europe to Britain. 

Read more

Government defends closure of child refugee scheme after six months

Safe Passage UK, which is run by the charity Citizens UK, calculated that between £8.7m and £20.3m in potential profits would be available to traffickers as a direct result of the scheme's closure - with children previously entitled to legitimate routes to the UK turning to organised crime.

Europol estimates that human traffickers make about £2bn to £4bn from trafficking desperate people over Europe's borders each year, with the enterprise thought to be in the same league of profitability for criminal gangs as illegal drugs.

The cash figure relating to Ms May's policy was calculated on the basis of on-the-ground research by the charity showing a single smuggling trip attempt currently costing refugees an average of £3,000, with £10,000 for guaranteed transfer.

George Gabriel, project lead for Safe Passage UK, told the Home Affairs Committee on Wednesday afternoon: "The major beneficiaries of this situation are the people traffickers operating in the area. It costs £3,000 to be supported in a single attempt from Dunkirk at the moment, £10,000 to be assured of transfer by a trafficker or a smuggler.

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

Refugee turned baroness calls on government to help child refugees 

Full list of MPs who voted against Dubs Amendment for child refugees

Council leaders condemn Government closure of child refugee scheme

Government blocks entry to disabled child refugees

Welby attacks Government for scrapping child refugee scheme

"If I wanted to look at the net sums of money available from closing the Dubs scheme - we estimate to be in the interests of people traffickers to be £8.7m and £20.3m on the basis of the number of children who'd be eligible in Greece - that's 48 per cent of the 2,300, plus the 321 children who've now absconded from towns in France."

Mr Gabriel criticised the closure of the scheme as a "very poor decision" and compared the effort to take in the children with that of the Kindertransport scheme rescuing young people fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s.

"The idea that Sir Nicholas Winton managed to transfer 669 children on his own and that he would top the efforts of our entire country, we think is shameful and a mistaken choice," he said.

The charity said it is aware of four children with the legal right to come to Britain lost their lives trying to do so in the last 12 months. Their names were Masood, Muhammed, Mahmudullah and Samir.

Other charities also warned the scheme would be a boon for traffickers. Martha Mackenzie, deputy head of government relations at Save the Children, said the UK's erratic policy on the scheme was causing "severe" confusion among children on the ground.

May accused of 'shabby cop out' over decision to end lone child refugee scheme

"Right across Europe children don't really know what their future holds, they don't really know what will happen if they go into the formal system ... instead they're putting themselves into the hands of people traffickers and smugglers, they're tying to make their own way to the UK. The existence of a scheme like Dubs ... stops children from doing that," she told the committee.

Ms Mackenzie said that since the policy's cancellation was announced Save the Children had observed children leaving official refugee centres and "taking their lives back into their own hands again".

Lily Caprani, Unicef's executive deputy director told the MPs: "It makes very little sense to us that this scheme can be cancelled now when we know that there are 2,500 unaccompanied children in Greece, ten times as many in Italy, and many others in Europe.

"Many others are outside the formal system - we know there is a formal system in Italy and Greece but it's overwhelmed. They cannot protect the children that they have there.

George Gabriel says the closure of the Dubs scheme is a 'very poor decision'(House of Commons)

"It doesn't seem to me very likely that we exhausted the supply of very vulnerable children who arrived in Europe even before [the] March 20 [cut-off date] so it's very difficult to explain why we cancelled this scheme now."

Melanie Ward, associate director of policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee said children were "sleeping rough or in accommodation with strange men", while others "were at risk of sex trafficking".

She added: "My colleagues report children in shelters drawing pictures of the police violence that they have been exposed to in countries like Bulgaria and Hungary."

The Dubs amendment scheme was named after Labour peer Lord Dubs, who came to the UK as a Jewish refugee fleeing the Nazis. He branded the decision to revoke the scheme "shameful" and said the Government had "no right" to turn its back on the children.

About two hundred children have been relocated in the UK thanks to the scheme, with a further 150 expected before the end of 2017.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd defended the scheme's early closure this month, arguing that the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe.

"The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," she said.

"The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach."


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Panic at the borders: Seven U.S-bound migrants stopped in Cairo and two refugees detained at JFK as Trump immigration ban takes effect while top firms like Google scramble to get Middle Eastern workers back into U.S. 


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1207 words



Visa, green card holders and refugees have already been blocked from entering the United States just hours after Trump signed an executive order introducing his tough new immigration bans.

Seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were stopped from boarding a flight from Cairo on Saturday, while at least two Iraqis were detained after flying in to New York's JFK airport on Friday night. 

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

Scroll down for video 

It has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.

Lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday night were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning, The New York Times  reports. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

One of Iraqis detained, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, has been working in Iraq on behalf of the U.S. government for 10 years. The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son. 

Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees.  

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being boarding and admission into the United States at the airport.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

TRUMP'S LIST FOR 'EXTREME VETTING' MEASURES: 

Trump's executive order provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm'.

They include:


After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have excluded from the order.

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey, the NY Daily News reports. 

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'


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The Sunday Times (London)


June 18, 2017 Sunday  
Edition 2;
National Edition


Child migrants 'hunted' in Calais;
Britain has reneged on a vow to take in youngsters living in squalor and fear, but a High Court hearing that starts on Tuesday could force a change


BYLINE: Christina Lamb


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 19


LENGTH: 1248 words


On a clear day Meles, 16, looks across from the filthy Calais slagheap where he spends most of his time and watches the ferry steaming towards Britain.

"I hope one of ours is there," he says wistfully. For the past two months, the Eritrean teenager has been trying most days to board a truck, climbing on top of the tyres if he cannot get into the back, only to be found by the drivers or by heatseeking cameras inside the port.

He is almost dropping with exhaustion. That morning at about 5.15am, he was with a group of refugees sleeping on pieces of cardboard when they were woken by riot police firing pepper spray and tear gas and hitting them with batons.

Sleeping bags were slashed, phones grabbed and stamped on, and any papers taken. Those who did not manage to flee were taken to a distant police station four hours walk away. "It happens every night," he said with a shrug. 

Eight months after the demolition of the Calais Jungle, France's largest refugee camp, 500 refugees have drifted back to a nearby industrial area. Local authorities are so desperate to stop another camp forming that they have brought in riot police and tried to stop aid agencies providing food and water.

A damning report by a French human rights official, Jacques Toubon, the so-called "Rights Defender" whose team visited the area last week, said the asylum seekers were living in "undergrowth" and being "hunted night and day". They are, he said, "in a state of physical and mental exhaustion".

About 200 of the refugees are unaccompanied children aged between 12 and 17. The vast majority are male, from Afghanistan and Eritrea as well as some Sudanese, Iraqis and Pakistanis, and all are trying to get on lorries to the UK where some have relatives.

The Jungle, which housed more than 9,000 people, was squalid but this is much worse. Some are living in the woods but many sleep on a heap of asphalt and industrial waste because it is warmer at night. It is a fetid place littered with migrant debris - blankets, shoes, banana skins and worse. Human excrement is everywhere. Aid agencies have been prevented from installing a water point so the refugees are unable to wash and many have scabies.

"We are living like animals," says Khan, 16, an Afghan who fled the country after the Taliban came to his house demanding his father hand over a son. "He refused so they killed my brother. At that point my father told me to go."

Another brother, Farhad, was already in the UK working in a pizza shop in south London and sent Khan $7,000 (£5,470) for his journey to join him. He travelled almost 5,000 miles from Afghanistan to France but the last 26 miles across the Channel have eluded him. A year on, he lives in the woods and on the slagheap.

"This is not like I imagined," he said. "European people treat dogs better than Afghan men."

The plight of children such as Meles and Khan has provoked an extraordinary row between Amber Rudd, the home secretary, and councils across the country that claim the government is preventing them from offering shelter to hundreds of vulnerable child refugees.

On Tuesday the High Court will start to hear a challenge from the charity Help Refugees calling for the government to reopen the Dubs scheme, passed by parliament last year, to give refuge to 3,500 unaccompanied child migrants in France, Italy and Greece.

Earlier this year the government abruptly announced it was taking just 350 under the scheme, named after Lord Dubs, a former Labour MP who arrived in Britain as one of a group of Jewish children saved from the Nazis.

The government subsequently agreed to raise the number to 480, but The Sunday Times understands just 200 child refugees have been rescued.

"We're taking this action because lone refugee children in Europe are sleeping in woods, on streets and in acutely underequipped refugee camps in danger of the worst kinds of abuses," said Josie Naughton, co-founder and chief executive of Help Refugees.

"In May 2016, a law was put in place to help protect these children, but for over a year Amber Rudd and the Home Office have put children's safety at risk by failing to uphold it."

The Home Office claimed that the numbers were cut because local councils, which are ultimately responsible for taking the children into care, did not have the capacity to accommodate them.

But a number of councils argue they were never consulted. Several council leaders claim they did not even realise the consultation was taking place, and insist they have at least 300 extra places available on top of the 480 stated.

"If this was a consultation, then it was cursory to the point that I did not even recognise what it was," said Julian Bell, leader of Ealing council in west London. Steve Miley, director of family services at Hammersmith and Fulham council, also in west London, described it as "an invisible consultation".

"There are hundreds more local authority spaces available for these children and the Home Office knows it," said Naughton. "This is inexcusable when turning our backs on these children would sentence them to a dark and unknown fate."

Aid agencies such as hers are allowed to feed the refugees only once a day. The mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, tried to ban food distribution altogether until a court declared the ban inhumane.

At around 6pm each day, on a stretch of land in an industrial area under giant pylons, vans arrive from refugee agencies and set up tables with vats of curry, salad and hummus, as well as a water hose.

A local man brings a generator so that refugees can charge their mobile phones and a large woofer from which music pounds, creating an almost festival atmosphere. Vans from Médecins Sans FrontiÈres and Gynaecology without Borders give medical advice and a mobile office from Refugee Youth Service offers legal information.

All of this is watched by 15 armed riot police who march forward on the dot of 7.30pm to move everyone out.

Few protest. A recent survey by the Refugee Rights Data Project described police brutality as "endemic" in Calais. Eighty-four per cent of respondents had experienced tear gas and 52.7% other forms of physical violence. Figures were even higher among children.

"The whole thing is inhumane," said Sam Jones, a chef who runs Refugee Community Kitchen and has a 15-strong team making 2,000 meals a day. "We don't even know how much longer we'll be allowed to feed them." Last week a large wire fence began to be built to cut off the woods and slag heap from the feeding point. "It's like snake and ladders," Jones added. "People who were in Calais Jungle are coming back, trying again but it's got harder."

Extra police have been drafted from across France and a high metal fence, known as the Great Wall of Calais and built with £2m of British taxpayers' money, has blocked off the port. Several refugees have died trying to enter it, falling off trucks.

Recent weeks have seen violent scenes with truck drivers complaining that migrants are making barricades of burning branches to force them to stop so they can board.

For the children of the Calais slagheap, having already travelled thousands of miles and endured traumatic journeys across desert, mountain and sea, they never imagined the last 26 miles would prove so difficult.

"There isn't a kid here who hasn't experienced rape or sexual violence," said Annie Gavrilescu, the Calais manager for Help Refugees.

@christinalamb

Lone children are sleeping in woods, on streets and in under-equipped camps in danger of the worst kinds of abuse


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LANGUAGE: ENGLISH


GRAPHIC: A young Afghan migrant gets a haircut at a squalid area in Calais where hundreds of refugees have gathered since demolition of the nearby 'Jungle'. About 200 of them are unaccompanied childrenJUSTIN SUTCLIFFE


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The Guardian


January 31, 2017 Tuesday 4:08 PM GMT 


David Miliband: Trump refugee ban threatens west's global reputation;
The former British foreign secretary and president of the International Rescue Committee calls the US policy 'a real and present danger to global stability'


BYLINE: Ed Pilkington in New York


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1037 words


David Miliband, the former British foreign secretary now heading one of the world's largest humanitarian aid and refugee resettlement organizations, has denounced President Trump's refugee ban as a threat to the global standing of all western countries.

Miliband, president of the New York-headquartered International Rescue Committee, is at the center of the billowing dispute over Trump's immigration order that has caused havoc at airports, prompted protests and court challenges, and provoked unprecedentedinternal opposition within the US government. 

In an interview with the Guardian, he slammed Trump's contentious action for imperiling the basis on which western countries were regarded favorably around the world .

Related: 'The world's doors were closed': Jared Kushner's grandma on refugee life

"This is a test for the western world not just for America. It's a test of whether or not we hold fast to the values of non-discrimination and to universal values of freedom from persecution, so the stakes are very high," he said.

Miliband said that "the allure, the glow, the magnetism" of the west was being cast in doubt. Such influence depended, he said, on the principle that people were able to "hold their political views, practice their religion, lead their lives in ways that are not dominated by capricious discrimination".

He added: "That allure remains strong. But when you meet families that are being torn apart by this ban, that causes doubt about what our countries stand for, and that is one of the most dangerous aspects of this."

Trump's executive order, signed last Friday, is focused in all but name at Muslims attempting to enter the US. It blocked all entry for 90 days for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The order also singled out refugees for harsh treatment, those deemed by the UN to have a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, political views or other factors. Trump banned entry of all refugees for the next four months, with Syria made subject to an indefinite refugee ban.

In total, some 60,000 refugees who have already been granted security clearance to come to the US, are now in limbo as a result of the ban.

The order has caused aftershocks across the Middle East and Europe, itself in the throes of its own refugee crisis. In the UK, the prime minister, Theresa May, has come under fierce criticism for cozying up to Trump, including holding his hand at the White House and inviting him to a state visit to the UK, while showing reluctance to criticize his immigration stance.

Trump and May gave a joint press conference at the White House last Friday at which they heralded the renewed "special relationship" between the US and UK. Moments after May left Washington, the US president unleashed his executive order.

Miliband noted the confluence of events. He said it was a "pity" that the UK prime minister "wasn't able to express the British position at the press conference with Donald Trump standing next to her".

He said: "The special relationship brings a special responsibility. Americans will notice clarity and conviction, and it's very important that it's expressed by America's closest allies."

He added that he hoped the shock and outrage that had erupted across the US over Trump's immigration order would act as a wake-up call for Europe. "This should remind Europeans that what we now call European values of solidarity, compassion and internationalism were hard fought for. It should certainly be a reason for people in Britain to realize that Brexit is no excuse to abandon what we regard as civilized values."

The IRC's work is likely to be affected on many levels by Trump's immigration ban. Founded in 1933 by Albert Einstein, himself a refugee to the US, the organization spans the full arc of the current crisis, from working on the ground in the countries covered by the order, including Iraq and Syria, as well as being one of the largest refugee resettlement groups in the US.

The profile of the average refugee entering the US sharply contrasts with the ominous image of terrorist Trojan horses conjured up by Trump. Half of all refugees entering the country each year are children under the age of 14, and women make up a large portion of the remainder.

A paradox of Trump's pledge to introduce "extreme vetting" is that refugees are already subjected to more extreme vetting by the US than any other group. They have to jump through numerous hoops in the course of an intense review that can last up to three years, including biometric testing, face-to-face interviews and background checks by the FBI, CIA and other intelligence and security agencies.

By specifically targeting Muslims, Trump was playing with fire, Miliband said: "This policy is a propaganda gift to extremists around the world who want to tell Muslim communities that America doesn't want them and doesn't want to help them. That is a real and present danger to global stability."

In his travels through the US in recent months, Miliband said he had met a number of individuals who underlined the positive contributions made by refugees. He recalled the baklava baker from Damascus whose house was bombed in 2012 and who recently relocated to America, and the Iranian Christian who fled religious persecution.

Such encounters had taught him "the wisdom of the terrible quote from Stalin that a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic. I think there's a grave danger in the refugee crisis that the scale of the numbers desensitizes people. The first thing is to remember the human scale: what we are trying to do is make the world better one life at the time."

Miliband noted that working as he does in the IRC's Manhattan offices he often glimpses the Statue of Liberty in the distance, causing him to reflect on the famous poem on its base: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

"We've always known that America had its political divisions, but there has never been a notion of two Americas when it comes to the idea of providing a haven to refugees," he said. "It's a shocking thought that America could divide on the very idea of its foundation."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 10, 2017 Friday 12:43 AM GMT 


Council leaders condemn Government closure of child refugee scheme;
Letter comesafter Home Secretary Amber Rudd suggested local authorities had been struggling to cope with financial pressures of humanitarian effort


BYLINE: Lucy Pasha-Robinson


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 591 words


Council leaders are calling on the Government to maintain its commitment to vulnerable child refugees after the Home Office cited local authority funding as part of the decision to scrap the scheme.

At least eight London councillors havesigned an open letter urging Theresa May to reconsider the decision to "snatch this lifeline" from thousands of lone asylum seekers under the age of 15, implemented under the Dubs Amendment last year.

It came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd suggested local authorities had been struggling to cope with the financial pressures of the humanitarian effort. 

Read more

Government blocks entry to disabled child refugees

Government defends closure of child refugee scheme after six months

Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn

Charities unite in anger as government quietly scraps refugee promise

"We call on the Government to re-consult with council leaders, reconsider the support given this important programme, and above all not to snatch this lifeline from thousands of desperate children in need," the councillors wrote in the letter, signed by leaders of Hammersmith & Fulham, Gedling Council, Camden, Ealing, Lambeth, Hounslow, Royal Borough of Greenwich and Lewisham.

Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor Steve Cowan claimed he contacted the Home Office on multiple occasions offering to take on more children, but received no response.

"Despite our offer and despite our pestering, they have only given us 13 children, I don't know if its confidence or if it's a deliberate attempt not to let the children in, but I just don't believe it," he told Sky News.

"There's councils across the country, many in London, ready to step up - this is a humanitarian crisis."

The Government's early closure of the Dubs programme after just six months provoked widespread anger, with just 200 lone children in Europe being given safe passage. The scheme is set to close once a further 150 arrive in the UK, however legal challenges to the U-turn are reportedly already being prepared.

Ms Rudd defended the reversal claiming the programme could "incentivise" lone refugee children to come to Europe.

"I am clear that when working with my French counterparts they do not want us to indefinitely continue to accept children under the Dubs Amendment because they specify, and I agree with them, that it acts as a draw. It acts as a pull," she said.

"It encourages the people traffickers."

However, refugee charity Safe Passage said the move would achieve the opposite.

"This announcement risks driving hundreds of street homeless children into the hands of the same traffickers Theresa May spent her time as Home Secretary fighting so determinedly against," Safe Passage spokesperson Rabbi Janet Darley said.

Lord Dubs, who himself was one of 669 refugee children rescued from the Nazis, called the Government U-turn "shameful".

Read more

If we turn our backs on child refugees, British values are dead

"I believe in arbitrarily closing down a scheme without any good reason for doing so, theGovernment is in breach of its commitments," he said.

Speaking on Thursday, Theresa May said she thought the Government approach was "absolutely right".

"We have been seeing quite a number of children and families being resettled here in the United Kingdom," she said.

"I think what we are doing in terms of refugees is absolutely right, on top of course of the significant financial support and humanitarian aid we are giving to refugees in the region of Syria - a commitment of £2.3 billion, the second biggest bilateral donor."


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The Independent - Daily Edition


May 30, 2017 Tuesday  
First Edition


'I saw one person setting himself on fire and maybe I'll be the next one';
One in three refugees living on the Greek island of Chios has witnessed suicide since arriving, a recent report has found. Charities have warned the situation is 'at breaking point'


BYLINE: MAY BULMAN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 16


LENGTH: 1057 words


One in three refugees in camps on the Greek island of Chios has witnessed a suicide there, an alarming report has revealed. Research seen exclusively by The Independent shows 39 per cent of displaced people living on Chios - of whom there are estimated to be close to 4,000 - have witnessed a death on the island, with 87 per cent of these saying it had occurred due to self-harm or suicide.

One refugee said he saw someone set himself on fire, telling researchers: "I saw one person setting himself on fire, and maybe I'll be the next one. I feel so bad and depressed." 

The report by the Refugee Rights Data Project (RRDP), based on 300 interviews with refugees on Chios, found that seven in ten (71 per cent) respondents had experienced mental health problems since arriving, and that less than a third of them (29 per cent) had been able to access medical care. The figure was even higher for women, who made up 12 per cent of those interviewed, with 94 per cent of them having experience mental health problems since arriving and less than a third (30 per cent) having been able to access support.

The findings are of particular concern following reports that thousands of refugees in Greece are at risk of losing vital support as charities prepare to withdraw services from the country's "hotspot" islands, such as Chios, as changes to EU funding are set to leave them out of contract by the end of July.

While NGOs on Greek islands have until now received millions of euros from the European Commission's humanitarian division (Echo) to provide services to refugees, the changes will see the allocation of funding, as well as the selection of projects to be funded, become the sole responsibility of the Greek authorities.

Charities on the island have now warned that in the light of the new findings, withdrawals of services will have a "detrimental and inhumane" effect on people's lives, and urged that health, safety and human rights of the displaced people arriving must now be the "highest priority". As well as concerns over the lack of mental health care to support the large number of refugees with psychological problems, the report revealed issues surrounding safety on the island.

Eighty-five per cent of refugees said they "never feel safe" or "don't feel safe" on Chios, while only three per cent saying they "feel perfectly safe". Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents said they had experienced police violence, and many told researchers the police treated refugees "like animals". A similar proportion (22 per cent) said they had experienced violence by Greek citizens on Chios, often from anti-immigrant groups staging demos on the island, which have been known to escalate into violence against refugees.

Thirty-seven per cent meanwhile said they had experienced violence by other refugees - often described as the result of exhaustion and tensions in overcrowded camps, combined with an absence of adequate security measures in and around the camps. Half of the children interviewed were unaccompanied, with nearly three quarters (73 per cent) saying they didn't feel safe in the camp and more than a quarter (29 per cent) saying they had witnessed someone dying on the island, according to the report. More than a third of the under-18s interviewed were recorded as having experienced mental health problems, but just 18 per cent had received medical care, and only 17 per cent had been offered access to advice about their rights and possibilities to change their situation. Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) said they had family somewhere in Europe.

The UNHCR estimated that there were 3,782 refugees on the island at the time of the study. Of these, 42 per cent were from Syria, 12 per cent from Iraq, nine per cent from Afghanistan and the remaining from a number of other countries including Iran, Palestine, Pakistan and Yemen, according to the report. The RRDP interviewed approximately 10 per cent of the refugee population on Chios. Of the respondents, 88 per cent were male and 12 per cent female, and the average age was 27, with 10 per cent being children aged 17 of under, including some female minors.

The average time respondents had spent on Chios was three months, with seven per cent having been there for a year or longer, and only a third of respondents residing on the island with family members. Seven in 10 of respondents told researchers they had family elsewhere in Europe.

The majority of refugees interviewed said there was a severe lack of access to information, with 86 per cent saying they had no access to information about their legal rights and opportunities to change their situation, while 78 per cent said they couldn't access information about European asylum law and immigration rules.

Almost half (41 per cent) of refugees questioned had not yet been able to submit their asylum application at the time of the study, while five per cent of them had had their application rejected and were awaiting deportation. Nearly all (95 per cent) of respondents said they were unable to go back to their home country due to fears of war, persecution or other. When asked about how they felt about being in Europe currently, seven in 10 said they felt "very bad" or "bad".

Commenting on the findings, Johanna Puhakka, RRDP research coordinator, said it was evidence that the island of Chios is "at breaking point", and urged that the proposals for NGOs to withdraw from providing services was "misguided" and required "urgent?" reconsideration.

"Our research indicates that Chios is currently at breaking point. This small island is overcrowded, and the organisations and agencies operating there are clearly struggling to provide some of the most basic services required." said Mr Puhakka. "The decision of humanitarian organisations to withdraw from the island in June therefore appears critically misguided and needs to be urgently reconsidered."

Sarah Story, co-founder of charity Refugee Info Bus, echoed the urgency of the situation, saying: "The health, safety and human rights of the displaced people arriving on Chios must be our highest priority right now.

"Increased resources and services need to be allocated - not reduced. Any further withdrawals of services will have a detrimental and inhumane effect on people's lives on Chios, given that this island is indeed, at breaking point."


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FinancialWire


May 4, 2017 Thursday


Ashley Community Housing wins consultancy support from Aleron


LENGTH: 944 words


Ashley Community Housing have secured consultancy support from Aleron to help them secure a contract (or contracts) worth £1m per annum, thanks to funding from Big Potential Advanced.

Aleron work with mission driven organisations, government, corporates, investors and philanthropists to unlock the potential barriers to social change. They advise, deliver for, and partner with organisations to achieve efficiency and impact in the social sector

Ashley Community Housing (ACH) is a thriving social enterprise which delivers the #rethinkingrefugee resettlement and integration programme throughout communities in the West of England and the West Midlands.
 



Since 2008 they have successfully resettled over 2000 individuals from refugee backgrounds - developing their independence, promoting their positive contribution to the community and easing their integration into UK life. Many of the ACH staff, including the CEO, have lived experience as former refugees, resulting in a tried and tested resettlement and integration service that is culturally responsive.

Consultancy support from Aleron will put ACH in a position to fully exploit market opportunities. It will enable them to drive forwards the work they do with refugees through the framework of the inclusive skills agenda being promoted by Central Government, and the Combined Authorities in the West of England and the West Midlands.

By bringing the economic strand of their Rethinking Refugee campaign to market ACH will be able to help more refugees, and amplify their work on collective impact as the best approach to integrating refugees into an inclusive labour market.

Richard Thickpenny, ACH's Business Development Manager, explained "It's great to work with Aleron as we prepare to upscale and deliver a sustainable resettlement provision across the UK, working with 25,000 people over the next 10 years".

Aleron CEO, Nicolas Ponset, said "Aleron are delighted to be working with Ashley Community Housing as part of the Big Lottery's Big Potential Advanced scheme. We are excited to be working with such an ambitious and fast-growing organisation that combines housing, support and training to transform the lives of so many vulnerable individuals in the West of England."

Editor's Notes:

For further information please contact:

Matthew Rogers, Marketing & Communications Officer Email: matthew.rogers@ashleyhousing.com Tel: 0117 954 0433 Website: www.ashleyhousing.com

About Ashley Community Housing

Ashley Community Housing (ACH) was established in 2008 as a social enterprise specialising in the economic, social and civil integration of refugees through accommodation and community based training support. We have successfully resettled over 2000 individuals from refugee backgrounds in this time.

We employ 60 staff and operate in the West of England and the West Midlands as a strategic partner for local authorities and government prime contractors. Through the establishment of our subsidiary training arm 'Himilo Training' we are committed to supporting refugees through work experience, language training, IT literacy and employability skills.

Our #RethinkingRefugee programme is considered outstanding and reflects our commitment to making sure refugees become part of society rather than remaining marginalised and under-employed.

www.ashleyhousing.com @AshleyCHousing

Big Potential

Big Potential is a Big Lottery Fund grant programme that will deliver approximately £20m of grant funding over three years to eligible VCSE organisations with the aim of improving their sustainability, capacity and scale in order that they may deliver greater social impact.

The programme has two routes; Breakthrough and Advanced. Big Potential Breakthrough helps VSCE organisations work out how social investment might work for them. Big Potential Advanced helps VCSE organisations with strong proposals apply for investment or challenge for contracts.

Big Potential is administered by Social Investment Business for the Big Lottery Fund, in partnership with Locality, Charity Bank, Social Enterprise UK, and the University of Northampton.

www.bigpotential.org.uk

Big Lottery Fund

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.

The fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 BIG has awarded close to £6bn.

The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.

In the year ending 31 March 2013, 28% of total National Lottery revenue was returned to the Good Causes. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,00 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education, and the environment.

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Social Investment Business

Social Investment Business provide loans, grants and strategic support to charities and social enterprises to help them change the lives of the people they work with.

They have helped hundreds of organisations become more resilient and sustainable so that they can grow and increase their impact.

They were one of the UK's first social investors and since 2002 have provided over £380 million of loans and grants to charities and social enterprises

www.sibgroup.org.uk @TheSocialInvest

* For more information regarding media usage, ownership and rights please contact Ashley Community Housing.

Distributed by http://www.pressat.co.uk/



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FinancialWire


June 7, 2017 Wednesday


Syria: As airstrikes hit Raqqa, UN sounds alarm over plight of civilians


LENGTH: 624 words


The United Nations humanitarian wing today said it is deeply concerned for the safety and protection of more than 400,000 civilians in Syria's war-torn Raqqa Governorate, "who continue to be exposed to daily fighting and airstrikes." 



"The humanitarian situation in Al-Raqqa governorate remains dire, with the majority of the population reportedly facing critical problems in meeting their immediate needs," Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the UN Nations Information Service in Geneva on behalf of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters at today's regular press briefing.

She also reiterated the UN's call for unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to those affected by the fighting in Raqqa, and more broadly to the 4.5 million who are still in hard-to-reach areas across the war-torn country.

Turning to the internally displaced (IDPs), she pointed out that more than 160,000 people have been displaced since 1 May with the situation on the ground remaining fluid. There are some 87,200 in the Ar-Raqqa governorate; nearly 37,000 in Aleppo; over 33,400 in Idlib; and smaller numbers in Hama, Deir-ez-Zor and Homs.

"On 3 June, three internally displaced people, including a pregnant woman, had been reportedly killed by a landmine. On 4 June, airstrikes on the al-Mashlab neighbourhood in Raqqa city had reportedly resulted in the destruction of two schools while mortar shelling in the vicinity of another school injured several people," she said.

Ms. Vellucci stated that since March, UN agencies continued to provide multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance through their local partners - such as food, medical treatment and vaccinations throughout Raqqa, including IDPs in camps.

Some 60,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon in Jordan could lose assistance

For its part, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sounded the alarm that humanitarian programmes supporting Syrian refugees and their host communities are quickly running out of resources.

Citing critical gaps in Lebanon and Jordan, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told journalists in Geneva that vital parts of its response to Syrian refugees were critically underfunded.

"Despite generous pledges, humanitarian programmes in support of Syrian refugee and communities hosting them are quickly running out of resources. The situation is most dramatic in Lebanon and Jordan where a number of direct cash assistance activities could dry up in less than four weeks," he said.

Those who fled to Jordan face stark challenges.

"Refugees tell our staff that UNHCR monthly cash support means a meal a day, a better roof, their dignity. Now they fear losing everything. Many say would prefer to go back to Syria to die if they stop receiving this assistance," continued Mr. Mahecic.

In Lebanon, where UNHCR urgently needs $ 116 million, direct cash assistance programmes for refugees will be affected first.

"These include a lifeline of multi-purpose cash for 30,000 Syrian refugee families, a winter cash assistance for two months for another 174,000 families and protection cash assistance for 1,500 refugee households to help them overcome periods of hardship," he continued.

"The funding gap also jeopardises 65,000 life-saving secondary health care interventions and support to UNHCR's and the Lebanese Authorities' capacity to issue and renew documentation for refugees, following a recent decision to waive the residency renewal fees which most refugees could not afford," Mr. Mahecic added.

Mid-way through this year, the $ 4.6 billion inter-agency appeal to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees across the Middle East and North Africa is only 18 per cent funded.



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The Sunday Telegraph (London)


January 29, 2017  
Edition 1;
National Edition


President's border action is off target if he wants to eradicate terror on home soil;
Analysis


BYLINE: Tim Stanley


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7


LENGTH: 570 words


Reducing immigration and fighting terrorism are what Donald Trump was elected to do. If he had backed down after winning, his critics would call him a hypocrite. Now that he's doing what he promised, they call him a monster. Signing an executive order to reduce refugee numbers on Holocaust Memorial Day was certainly shameless. But will it actually improve US security? The experts say no.

It's important to be precise about what Trump's order actually does. It's not a blanket Muslim ban. It's a temporary ban on migration from seven terror-prone countries lasting 90 days and a suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, until improved vetting can be put in place. The number of refugees permitted into the country in 2017 is to be capped at half the current rate. 

The legality of this is already being questioned, but it may still prove popular. During the election, support AP; for a total ban on Muslim migration - which, again, this is not - ran at around half the country and threequarters of Republicans. It doesn't help that social media is full of stories of rape and violence following the mass exodus of Syrians to northern Europe, as well as reports of terrorists using refugee routes to enter the EU and attack its citizens. Muslims are an almost invisible community in the US, and the lobby defending their reputation is small.

But just because Americans are worried about something doesn't make it correct. The facts belie any belief that the US has a refugee problem: it just doesn't take that many people. For instance, America only took around 12,000 Syrians in 2016. Figures released in the middle of that year found that the vast majority of them were women and children. Over half were infants. The vetting is rigorous. Only a tiny percentage of refugees make it through an initial screening, and they are then screened by several security departments in a process that can take up to two years.

Of course, there have been acts of terror on US soil, and politically correct politicians have infuriated many voters by refusing to call the attackers what they are: Islamists. But what they're overwhelmingly not is refugees. As Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, wrote after the executive order was signed: "All the lethal acts of jihadist terrorism in the States since 9/11 have been carried out by American citizens or legal residents, and none of them have been the work of Syrian refugees."

Around a quarter of all attacks have been perpetrated by converts to Islam. Ergo, the link between migration and terrorism is weak, which makes a refugee ban look arbitrary and cruel.

The list of countries affected is pretty random, too. Why are Afghanistan and Pakistan not on it? The argument goes that the targeted nations have either governments that back terror or powerful terrorist groups that hold territory there. But that's actually a solid reason to take refugees from those nations - that is, the refugees are obviously fleeing persecution.

This controversial policy is a true test of Trumpism. It's probably what his voters voted for, but will they be able to stomach the consequences? Stories are already emerging of families broken up and desperate people left stranded. We shall find out how tough-minded the new Republican coalition truly is.

'All the lethal acts of jihadist terrorism in the States since 9/11 have been carried out by US citizens or legal residents'


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


June 19, 2017 Monday


Macedonia opposes opening of migrant camps


LENGTH: 1049 words


Text of report by Macedonian newspaper Nova Makedonija on 17 June

[Report by Dejan Srbinovski: "The Region Must Not Be Turned Into a Migrant Camp"]

While the European Commission is openly threatening to impose a fine on "the recalcitrant member states," such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and others, for disregarding the EU migrant quota plans, the Western media have become more vocal about the idea of the regional countries, including Macedonia, once again becoming provisional reception centres for the refugees and rejected asylum seekers. According to reports of influential media, Brussels would in return guarantee political, security, and economic support to the Balkan countries.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Commissioner on Migration, Home Affairs, and Citizenship, has said in Strasbourg this week that the European Commission has still not initiated talks with the new Macedonian Government regarding the reception and long-term settlement of a large number of migrants on Macedonian territory. He has refused to confirm whether the EU is behind the announced construction of a large refugee camp in Demir Kapija, which should accommodate a few thousand refugees and where most of the 100 thousand refugees currently located on Greek territory would be relocated. However, he has denied that Brussels plans to begin talks with the new Macedonian cabinet to assist it during the migrants' relocation. 

"I cannot confirm anything. We have still not launched talks with the new Macedonian Government. Once the discussions start, we will support and help all the regional countries, just as we have done to date," Commissioner Avramopoulos has stressed.

The EU migration commissioner has also mentioned that Macedonia is receiving substantial financial support from the European Commission regarding the refugee crisis, so he has asked from our country, as well as from the other countries along the Western Balkan migrant route, to show solidarity for their neighbours for the purpose of coping with the influx of migrants.

"We would like to ask all the regional countries, that is, the Western Balkan countries or the countries along the so-called Balkan corridor, to cooperate with their neighbours in the spirit of solidarity, for which they will obtain full support from the European Commission. However, we have not initiated any discussions with the new cabinet yet, although we hope that this will happen soon," Avramopoulos added.

The Macedonian authorities have publicly rejected as unacceptable and impossible the Western European leaders' proposals for the opening of refugee camps in the country on few occasions now. Representatives of [Macedonian] President Gjorge Ivanov's office have denied several times the rumours of refugee camps being planned to be built in Macedonia, pointing that the opening of refugee camps in the Balkan countries that are not EU member states should not be allowed because this may imperil national security since our country lacks the capacity and the resources to deal with the expected inflow of migrants.

Furthermore, the Crisis Management Centre's [CUK] coordinating body, which is currently inoperative, has denied having any information about the construction of any kinds of migrant camps on Macedonian territory where the migrants who seek asylum in Western Europe would be settled.

"We currently have no information, nor impression, nor announcement from the relevant institutions about the possible movement of migrants throughout Europe or a plan for their positioning in Macedonia. The two transit centres in the country: Vinojug in Gevgelija and Tabanovce, currently accommodate around 30 migrants, but this number varies constantly depending on whether the migrants leave voluntarily or return to the country from where they have arrived in Macedonia. So, let us reiterate: we have no position on this issue," CUK officials say.

Some national experts share the state leadership's policy on this issue. Nearly all those in the know have unanimously condemned the European speculations of refugee camps being built in our country, stressing that Macedonia and the other regional countries lack the capacity to accommodate refugees on their territory, let alone the financial power to sustain them. Macedonia, as part of the migrant story, should be careful and consistent in its policies so as not to get the worst of the bargain, they advise.

International law professor Lazar Lazarov has said on several occasions now that Brussels' policies towards the Balkans are confusing, two-faced, and dishonest. Thus, the EU is not pushing the region forward in terms of its Euro-Atlantic course, but is using certain EU members to return the Balkans to the past with such proposals and policies.

"It all boils down to protecting the old EU member states' interests and to incessant criticisms, as well as to ultimatums towards the regional countries on their pre-accession road," Lazarov claims.

The professor stresses that such proposals for the refugees' settlement on our territory are utterly reproachful. In his view, Macedonia should be cautious when making decisions so as not to get the short end of the stick in the refugee story and turn into the migrants' and refugees' gathering spot in the Balkans not by its own fault.

Meanwhile, the regional countries are one by one openly opposing the plans and proposals for the opening of camps in the Balkans. Simultaneously, news agencies have reported that the International Organization for Migration [IOM] announced yesterday that more than 43,000 migrants and refugees had arrived in the European countries since the start of the year after managing to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Its report reads that about 1,000 people have perished during the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Incidentally, the number of migrants to have arrived on the Greek islands over the past four months amounts to 4,843, which is significantly less compared to the same period last year, when more than 154,000 people arrived. Since the beginning of the year, 36,851 sea-borne migrants have landed in Italy, which is a 45% increase compared to the number of migrants who have arrived in this country along the Central Mediterranean route.

Source: Nova Makedonija in Macedonian 17 Jun 17


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BreakingNews.ie


January 30, 2017 Monday 10:29 AM GMT 


What we know about Donald Trump's order on refugees and immigration


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 795 words


US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that makes major changes to America's immigration system, sparking confusion at airports, protests around the country and denunciations from leaders around the world.

Here is a look at what he ordered and the reaction:

<strong> NO ENTRY </strong> 

Mr Trump's executive order temporarily suspends all immigration for citizens of seven majority Muslim countries for 90 days. They are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

The order also calls for Homeland Security and State Department officials, along with the director of national intelligence, to review what information the government needs to fully vet would-be visitors and come up with a list of countries that do not provide it.

The order says the government will give countries 60 days to start providing the information or citizens from those countries will be barred from travelling to the US.

<strong> GREEN CARD HOLDERS AND DUAL CITIZENS </strong>

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a statement on Sunday declaring that in the absence of information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, residency would be a "dispositive factor in our case-by-case determination".

That means citizens of the seven target countries who hold permanent US residency "green cards" will not be barred from re-entering the US, as officials had previously said.

Officials also clarified on Sunday that dual citizens who are nationals of one of the seven target countries and a country that is not on the list will be subject to additional security screenings, but are likely to be allowed through.

<strong> REFUGEES </strong>

Mr Trump ordered a four-month suspension of America's refugee programme. The suspension is intended to provide time to review how refugees are vetted before they are allowed to resettle in the US.

The order also cuts the number of refugees the US plans to accept this budget year by more than half, to 50,000 people from around the world.

During the last budget year the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the current refugee limit at 110,000.

The temporary halt to refugee admissions does include exceptions for people claiming religious persecution, as long as their religion is a minority faith in their country.

<strong> SYRIA </strong>

Mr Trump's order directs the State Department to stop issuing visas to Syrian nationals and halts the processing of Syrian refugees. That will remain in effect until Mr Trump determines that enough security changes have been made to ensure that would-be terrorists cannot exploit weaknesses in the current vetting system.

<strong> EXTREME VETTING </strong>

Mr Trump's order did not spell out specifically what additional steps he wants to see the Homeland Security and State Departments add to the country's vetting system for refugees. Instead he directed officials to the review the refugee application and approval process to find any other security measures that can be added to prevent people who pose a threat from using the refugee program.

During the Obama administration, vetting for refugees included in-person interviews overseas, where they provided biographical details about themselves, including their families, friendships, social or political activities, employment, phone numbers, email accounts and more. They also provided biometric information, including fingerprints.

Syrians were subject to additional, classified controls that administration officials at the time declined to describe, and processing for that group routinely took years to complete.

<strong> THE RESPONSE AT HOME </strong>

Mr Trump's order sparked an immediate backlash and sowed chaos and outrage, with travellers getting detained at airports, panicked families searching for relatives and protesters marching against the sweeping measure - parts of which were blocked by several federal courts.

Protests were held across the country, including in sight of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York City and at international airports where travellers were temporarily detained.

<strong> THE RESPONSE ABROAD </strong>

Leaders of Britain and Germany joined other American allies in criticising Mr Trump's entry ban, voicing anger and dismay, even as some far-right politicians expressed hope the move would inspire similar measures in Europe. The far-right National Democratic Party in Germany, for instance, celebrated "the massive restriction on the entry of pseudo-refugees and Muslims to the USA".

A petition on the British Parliament's website, meanwhile, attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures backing its call for Mr Trump, who has been invited to meet the Queen, to be barred on the basis of misogyny and vulgarity.


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:45 AM GMT 


US refugee ban: Trump decried for 'stomping on' American values;
UN agencies, rights groups and political leaders challenge legality of executive order which appears to target Muslims Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US


BYLINE: Paul Owen, Sabrina Siddiqui, Heather Stewart, staff and agencies


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1133 words


Donald Trump is facing mounting criticism from world leaders and aid organisations after ending his first week as president with a ban on all Syrian refugees entering the US and a halt on arrivals from a string of predominantly Muslim countries.

The president signed an executive order to stop all refugee arrivals for four months - and Syrian arrivals indefinitely - on Friday, hours after meeting the British prime minister Theresa May and reportedly reaffirming his commitment to Nato.

Related: Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US

The move, which he described as "extreme vetting" measures intended to "keep terrorists out", was even more severe than expected. It will amount to a de facto ban on Muslims traveling to the US from parts of the Middle East and north Africa by prioritising refugee claims "on the basis of religious-based persecution". 

The order, named Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, places a 90-day block on entry to the US from citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. It is unclear whether the measure would apply to citizens of those countries on trips abroad who already have permission to live and work in the US.

The order also caps the total number of refugees entering the US in 2017 to 50,000, less than half the previous year's figure of 117,000.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on the Trump administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the Geneva-based agencies said in a joint statement.

They said the US's acceptance of refugees had offered a double benefit, "first by rescuing some of the most vulnerable people in the world and second by enabling them to enrich their new societies".

Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader in the Senate, said: "Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded, has been stomped upon.

"Taking in immigrants and refugees is not only humanitarian but has also boosted our economy and created jobs decade after decade. This is one of the most backward and nasty executive orders that the president has issued."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced it would be filing a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the order "because its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States".

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena F Masri, the council's litigation director. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani campaigner for girls' education who survived an attempted murder by the Taliban when she was 15, said she was "heartbroken" that America was "turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work hard in exchange for a fair chance at a new life".

She added: "I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Madeline Albright, the former US secretary of state, said: "There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty. America must remain open to people of all faiths and backgrounds."

She was referring the inscription of the iconic New York landmark: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a statement he was concerned about the impact of Trump's executive orders.

Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said his great-grandparents came to the US from Germany, Austria and Poland and his wife's parents were refugees from China and Vietnam. "The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that," he said.

"Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation."

As well as halting Syrian arrivals indefinitely, the president's order suspends the admittance of all refugees to the US for 120 days. In Syria alone, the nearly six-year war under Bashar al-Assad's regime has led to more than 500,000 civilian deaths and displaced an estimated 11 million Syrians.

Although Trump administration officials continue to insist the president's actions are not targeted at any one faith, the text of the order made explicit that, when the 120-day suspension ended, the US government would prioritize religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries.

It states: "Upon the resumption of USRAP [US Refugee Admissions Program] admissions, the secretary of state, in consultation with the secretary of homeland security, is further directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality."

The order was published hours after Trump met May, the first meeting with an international head of state since his inauguration last week.

In a White House press conference on Friday, the British prime minister said: "On defence and security cooperation, we're united in our recognition of Nato as the bulwark of our collective defence and we reaffirmed our unshakeable commitment to this alliance. We're 100% behind Nato."

Downing Street has sought to toe a difficult line, between Britain's need to maintain a close relationship with the US as it leaves the EU, and Trump's unpredictability, as well as the fact that many British voters are sceptical about him.

Sources said the two leaders felt they had gained something from their discussion. May flew from Washington to Turkey overnight for bilateral talks with President Raycep Erdogan.

Trump will spend Saturday calling world leaders, including Angela Merkel of Germany, François Hollande of France and Russia's Vladamir Putin. The president's links to the latter have been the subject of huge press and public interest, and their call is expected to include discussion of the US dropping trade embargoes against Russia.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Iraqi who worked as a translator for the U.S. army for ten years is released after being held overnight at JFK airport alongside 12 others in Trump immigrant ban confusion 


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1637 words



One of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 17 hours when he tried to enter the United States after Trump signed an executive order has now been released from New York's JFK airport.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh walked free from detention on Saturday afternoon after he flew into the airport the night before, just hours after Trump signed off on his tough new immigration bans. 

The 53-year-old had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America. 

Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release, as a crowd of supporters cheered him on. 

Scroll down for video 

'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside the airport.

'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom... America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.'  

He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America. 

WHO EXACTLY IS BANNED FROM THE U.S? 

Any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen is now barred from entering the United States.

That covers legal permanent residents - green card holders - and visa-holders from those seven countries who were out of the United States after Friday, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the temporary ban. They cannot return to the U.S. for 90 days.

There's an exemption for immigrants and legal permanent residents whose entry is in the U.S. national interest, but it's unclear how that exemption will be applied.

Visa and green card holders already in the U.S. will be allowed to stay.

Customs and Border Protection is notifying airlines about passengers whose visas have been canceled or legal residents scheduled to fly back to the U.S. Airlines are being told to keep them off those flights.

Source: Associated Press 

Lawyers for Darweesh and another Iraqi who is still detained at JFK filed a lawsuit on Saturday morning in a bid to have them released. 

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them on Friday night and took their passports when they landed in New York.

Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi - who is also believed to have had ties to the U.S. military - was flying to America to join his wife and son in Texas.

Eleven other refugees are still being held at JFK airport. Protesters gathered outside the airport on Saturday in anger over those being held in detention.

Cairo airport officials said seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world. 

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries. 

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said. 

SYRIAN REFUGEE'S DREAM OF MOVING TO U.S. SHATTERED:

Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order, Bloomberg reports. 

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'


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Press Association Mediapoint


January 13, 2017 Friday 12:01 AM BST 


Advisory: First issued under embargo


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 895 words


SYRIAN REFUGEE VICTIMS OF TORTURE 'NOT SUPPORTED' AFTER ARRIVING IN BRITAIN

By Andrew Woodcock, Press Association Political Editor

Syrian torture survivors may not be receiving the specialist support they need after arriving in Britain as refugees, a report has warned.

More than half of Syrian refugees resettled in the UK are survivors of torture or violence during the country's civil war, the report by the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found. 

But it said ``only a few'' torture victims had been referred to specialist organisations for assessment and rehabilitation and only about a quarter of those needing mental health services had access to them.

More than 4,400 Syrians have been resettled in 175 council areas around the UK since ex-prime minister David Cameron's 2015 promise to take in 20,000 vulnerable people from camps in the region over the next five years.

But the charity Freedom from Torture said only a ``handful'' had been referred for treatment and its offer to assist on a bigger scale had ``so far been overlooked by Government''.

The charity backed the PAC's call for an urgent review to ensure victims of torture are identified and supported.

PAC chair Meg Hillier said: ``It is critical that such people receive specialist support.

``Our committee has previously highlighted the shortcomings in access to mental health services and we call on the Government to ensure a plan is in place to properly support refugees in need of them.''

The report said the Government was making ``encouraging progress'' towards the 20,000 target. But meeting it in full would be a ``significant challenge'' and Government procedures for evaluating progress were ``too vague''.

Sufficient offers have already been received from local authorities across the UK to house all 20,000 of the expected arrivals.

But there was ``confusion'' about the full extent of support they were expected to provide, and some councils fear that the funding of £8,250 per refugee in the first year - declining the longer they are in the UK - will not be enough to cover the services they need.

Failure to provide clarity on these issues ``risks the successful delivery of the programme'', the report warned.

There have been warnings that the four hours of English language tuition the Syrians receive weekly during their first year ``is not enough for them to properly integrate into or communicate with their local communities'', and it was ``not clear'' whether an extra £10 million announced for classes will be enough, said the PAC.

The report said the decision to offer Syrians ``humanitarian protection'' rather than refugee status was preventing them from claiming some disability benefits and student finance or travelling abroad.

Some were suffering ``undue stress'' because of uncertainty over what would happen to them when the programme ended.

Ms Hillier said more work was needed to make the resettlement programme ``sustainable in the longer-term''.

The Government should set out ``detailed plans'' now or risk failing the refugees and undermining public support for the programme, she said, adding: ``There is a long way to go.''

Lucy Gregg, senior policy adviser at Freedom From Torture - the only organisation dedicated to the treatment of torture survivors in the UK - said there were ``serious gaps'' in the process for identifying torture victims among Syrians arriving in the UK.

``Early identification of torture survivors and the provision of specialist clinical services are absolutely vital in ensuring that those being resettled can integrate into their host communities and are crucial to the long-term success of the programme,'' she said.

Immigration minister Robert Goodwill said the Government was ``on target'' to resettle 20,000 people.

``We have secured all the local authority pledges to reach our commitment, but the hard work across Government involving the devolved administrations and local authorities will continue until we have turned all of these pledges into firm offers,'' said Mr Goodwill.

``We are providing substantial financial support to help local authorities provide vulnerable refugees with a safe environment and a chance to build their lives.''

Refugee Council director of advocacy Lisa Doyle said the resettlement target was ``more than achievable''.

``What's needed now is an acknowledgement that the global refugee crisis isn't going away any time soon and that a longer-term strategy for refugee resettlement is needed which clearly outlines roles, responsibilities, resources and an ambitious plan for welcoming refugees beyond 2020,'' she said.

Advisory: First issued under embargo

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said: ``Local authorities that have done the right thing by taking in refugees must be given sufficient funding and guidance, so they can help new arrivals integrate and build a new life.

``It is deeply worrying that vulnerable people who have experienced torture are not receiving the support they need.

``Unless the Government addresses clear problems with the resettlement programme, its already paltry target of 20,000 over five years risks not being met.

``Theresa May's scrapping of the Minister for Refugees, who oversaw the implementation of the 20,000 target, was a major step backwards. The Government must reclaim the lead on this issue and not simply palm off responsibility on local authorities.''


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telegraph.co.uk


January 24, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM GMT 


'The crisis isn't over, it's getting worse' - inside Serbia's 'frozen hell' for refugees


BYLINE: By James Rothwell


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1099 words


It is noon in the Serbian capital, and as the temperature rises to an almost bearable -3C, hundreds of half-starved bodies are beginning to stir.

 The refugees spent the night shivering in abandoned warehouses opposite Belgrade rail station, while an icy wind roared through the shattered windows. 

There is a racket of sneezing and coughing as they step outside and trudge through the snow towards a white van across the frozen road.

Aid workers open the rear doors and begin handing out steaming polystyrene boxes of stew and small pieces of bread. The refugees squat in the snow, eating slowly and carefully - it is their only meal of the day. 

A migrant receiving a hot meal from volunteersCredit: AFP

One youngster's shoes look like they are about to fall apart - another has squeezed on a pair at least three sizes too small, his bare heels kicking up greyish slush as he limps towards the van.

Within minutes of finishing their meal, they retreat to the warehouses, where row upon row of tents and sleeping bags await them.

For most of the refugees, who are mainly from Afghanistan and Iraq, it is too cold to go back to bed. The Telegraph saw dozens of men and young boys trying to do so anyway,  covered from head to toe in damp blankets.

Were it not for the constant coughing, they could almost be mistaken for bodies in funeral shrouds, tucked out of sight just a few hundred yards away from the bustling city centre.

Refugee warming up around a fire at a makeshift shelter at an abandoned warehouse in BelgradeCredit: AFP

A spokesman for Save the Children said up to 2,000 people, including dozens of unaccompanied children, are sleeping rough in this squalid camp.  

There is no electricity, no washing facilities and no clean water to drink - only a broken pipe in the wall of an old public toilet which erratically spews out murky water.  

In a desperate attempt to keep warm, some have started burning rubbish, which pumps noxious fumes into the poorly ventilated warehouses and turns them into a breeding ground for potentially deadly lung infections.

With temperatures known to plunge to as low -15C at night, many are more concerned about getting frostbite, with several cases already reported in the camp.

Refugees standing in line for food distributed by volunteers outside of derelict warehousesCredit: AFP

Among the sick and infirm is 14-year-old Hamidulleh, who fled the Laghman province of Afghanistan with his father around six months ago. He says they were separated near the Serbian border, and that he cannot reach his father on his mobile phone.   

"I want to go to France and claim asylum there," he says, "I don't have family in France, but I hope they will take me anyway."

The teenager is not sure how long he has been in the camp at Belgrade, but it is long enough for the toxic fumes to leave his lungs feeling swollen and raw.

He thinks he has already caught the flu and, more worryingly, his kidneys have started to hurt.

A group of Afghan men say they are looking after Hamidulleh until he finds his father, at which point they will pool their funds and pay a smuggler up to three thousand euros to take them deeper into Europe. 

The Serbian government has set up several emergency centres to accommodate these refugees, but many are refusing to use them.  

After the closure of borders by Hungary and Croatia, Serbia was crowded with hundreds refugees stuck in Belgrade.Credit: AGF

Some refugees said this was because they are determined to reach Europe, and fear that their chances of claiming asylum in the UK or Germany would be ruined if they register themselves in Serbia. 

"The conditions are horrific, it's like some kind of frozen hell," an aid worker told the Telegraph.  

"They have gone through terrible things to get here and now they are stuck because the borders have been closed.

"The refugee crisis is not over, there are up to a hundred refugees coming in every day. And with the borders closed things are getting worse."

It is understood that smugglers operate discreetly in the warehouses and have ramped up their prices as the border shutdown has made the crossings even more dangerous.

Those who try to enter neighbouring Hungary or Croatia risk becoming the victims of police officers and thugs who have been known to violently push refugees back into Serbia.

 In some cases, according to Save the Children, people have been beaten, bitten by dogs, stripped of their clothing and then driven back into Serbia.

"The Bulgarian police beat us, took our money, asked us why we came to Europe," one 12-year-old refugee told aid workers. 

The refugees live in inhuman conditionsCredit: AGF

"In truth the refugee crisis has not abated. It's simply a more dangerous route, especially for children," said Jelena Besedic, Save the Children 's advocacy manager in Serbia. 

"We are seeing injuries such as dog bites and people wounded by brutal treatment as they are pushed back [into Serbia.]"

The spiralling crisis has prompted Save the Children to set up its own 24-hour care centre for families in Belgrade which also includes a small playroom. 

One Iraqi family-of-six had arrived at the centre the previous night  - Ahmed, 48, with his wife Ginnan and their four children. The youngest, Fatima, is only eight years old. 

"We wanted to leave when my brother was killed by Daesh [Islamic State]," said Ahmed, who trained as a doctor in Baghdad, via a translator. 

They fled Iraq to Turkey, and then paid to be smuggled into Greece before passing along the so-called Balkans route, which has been used by nearly a million migrants and refugees since 2015. 

Ahmed and his family in the Child Friendly Space at Save the Children's refugee centre in Belgrade, Serbia.Credit: Tatjana Ristic_Save the Children

"It was either on foot or by taxi for most of the journey," he said, "my wife fainted seven times, we kept catching the flu.

"When we crossed the mountains Fatima was so tired we had to carry her. "

At one point Ahmed and his family tried crossing through a forest as they neared the Serbian border.

They got lost during the night, and ended up taping themselves together for fear of losing one of their children in the darkness. 

It is a small miracle that they made the 1,700 mile journey without getting split up - many others, like Hamidulleh, have not been so lucky. 

Now, they have only one destination in mind, and they are learning as much English as they can to improve their chances of reaching it.. 

"It has to be the UK," says Ahmed, pausing as Fatima interrupts him with a coughing fit, "it's there or nowhere." 


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PR Newswire Europe


May 25, 2017 Thursday 12:01 AM EST 


New Study Reveals State Of Humanitarian Morass Worldwide


LENGTH: 1758 words


DATELINE: YEREVAN, Armenia, May 25, 2017


Waning Compassion, Lack of Competent Leadership and Skepticism in One's Ability to Make a Difference Drive Decline in Humanitarian Support

Pessimism Buoyed by Confidence in Millennials to Take Future Humanitarian Action

A new international study released today, the 2017 Aurora Humanitarian Index, revealed support for humanitarian action is on a steep decline and there is an overwhelming lack of confidence in world leaders to address the refugee crisis.

Results from the Index, which surveyed nearly 6,500 people in 12 countries, were compounded by the fact that only nine percent of individuals believe their actions can make a difference in solving the global refugee crisis. For the second year in a row, terrorism is cited as the undisputed top humanitarian issue at 63 percent, followed by the widening gap between the rich and poor, hunger, climate change and forced migration.

The annual public opinion survey gauges attitudes towards humanitarian issues worldwide, the effectiveness of humanitarian intervention, and individuals' motivations to intervene on behalf of others. A bright spot in the 2017 Index showed youth outpacing their older counterparts, showing greater openness toward and support of refugees, and willingness to take humanitarian action. 

"The sense of apathy towards humanitarianism today highlights an urgent need for engagement in every sector," said Ruben Vardanyan, co-founder of theAurora Humanitarian Initiative (AHI) and United World College at Dilijan. "However, this negativity is counter-balanced by the incredibly positive attitudes of youth towards humanitarianism and the individual impact on the refugee crisis. All of us need to educate and motivate the young people around the world so they not only understand their capacity for meaningful impact, but are inspired to act upon it."

Key findings from the 2017 Aurora Humanitarian Index commissioned by the AHI, a non-profit organization committed to building a global humanitarian movement to empower modern-day saviors, include:

Confidence in individual impact on humanitarian action is low:Only nine percent of respondents feel they can make a difference in solving humanitarian issues.Although 56 percent of respondents are upset upon hearing the hardship that Syrian refugees are experiencing, 51 percent feel they are unable to make a meaningful impact.
Support for humanitarian action is declining:Though a majority of respondents agree refugees deserve help, only 37 percent would welcome refugees into their own countries.42 percent of respondents feel their countries have already taken in too many refugees.Respondents across the 12 countries identified Germany, France and the U.S. as the countries accepting the highest number of refugees. In actuality, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey have permitted the most refugees into their countries.
 Isolationism and nationalism extend beyond politics:34 percent of respondents agree that immigrants make their country a better place to live, yet one-third view migrants as a threat to their religious beliefs.44 percent of respondents feel their country is threatened by ethnic minorities. This figure rises significantly in the UK (56 percent); Kenya (56 percent); Turkey (55 percent); and France (54 percent).
There is a crisis in competent leadership:32 percent of respondents could not identity a leader capable of addressing the refugee crisis.U.S. President Donald Trump (33 percent) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (31 percent) are perceived as the leaders best positioned to provide solutions to the refugee crisis today, a sharp decrease from the 46 percent of respondents from the 2016 Aurora Humanitarian Index which perceived then U.S. President Barack Obama as most capable.Despite their distinctly different views, Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Syrian President Bashar AL-Assad are all equally believed by only 15 percent of respondents as being best positioned to provide solutions to the refugee crisis.  Every sector surveyed is perceived as doing less in 2017 to address the Syrian refugee crisis than one year ago, as reported in the 2016 Aurora Humanitarian Index. The media, international communities, respondents' governments and developed countries suffered the most significant decline in perceived action since 2016. The European Union and the United Nations are perceived as the most capable bodies to address the ongoing crisis, but confidence in global organizations across the board has declined since 2016.
Hope lies with the next generation of humanitarians:Overall, younger people are more positive and confident in their capacity for impact, with 68 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 years agreeing that refugees deserve help, and 47 percent wanting to help Syrian refugees.Younger respondents value diversity, with 29 percent of respondents agreeing it is better for a country if everyone shared customs and traditions.Of those surveyed, respondents aged 18 to 34 years are the most likely to take action to address the refugee crisis in the next 12 months.

The global survey, led by research partner Kantar Public and interpreted by academic partner Université Libre de Bruxelles, was fielded between February 21 and March 19, 2017. Interviews were conducted with 6,466 individuals in 12 markets, up from six markets surveyed in the inaugural 2016 Index.  

"The results from this year's Aurora Humanitarian Index compel the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative to continue its mission to celebrate and empower those who offer life and hope to those in need, inspire those individuals who have been saved to become saviors themselves, and rekindle hope in humanity," said Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of the AHI. "Each of the five 2017 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity finalists are brilliant examples of the deep and meaningful impact a single person can have on the world."

The 2017 Aurora Humanitarian Index will be presented on Sunday, May 28 in Yerevan, Armenia during the Aurora Dialogues, a platform for the world's leading humanitarians, academics, philanthropists, business leaders and civil society to bring awareness to today's most pressing humanitarian challenges. The Aurora Dialogues weekend of events will culminate with the presentation of the 2017Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, a global humanitarian award that recognizes modern-day heroes and their exceptional impact on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes in the face of adversity. A panel discussion featuring Aurora Prize Selection Committee Members Gareth Evans, Hina Jilani and Mary Robinson, Kantar Public Methods Director Hayk Gyuzalyan, American University in Cairo Professor of Global Affairs and Center for Migration and Refugee Studies Ibrahim Awad, and RefugePoint Founder and Executive Director Sasha Chanoff will be live-streamed athttp://www.auroraprize.com.   

For more information about the survey results and the Aurora Humanitarian Index, visit the 2017 Aurora Humanitarian Index pagehere. For media inquiries, please contactauroraprizemedia@edelman.com

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative (AHI) is a group committed to building a broad, global humanitarian movement rooted in inspiring stories of courage and survival that emerged during the Armenian Genocide. Founded on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative seeks to empower modern-day saviors to offer life and hope to those in urgent need of basic humanitarian aid and continue the cycle of giving internationally.

The Initiative seeks to inspire global expansion and amplification to continue a cycle of giving. By embodying a concept of "Gratitude in Action", AHI hopes to involve the entire world in this important movement.

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is an eight-year commitment that dates 2015 to 2023, in remembrance of the eight years of the Armenian Genocide, which took place 1915-1923. It is intended to support people and promote projects that tackle the needs of the most helpless and destitute, and do so at great risk.

The Initiative's various programs include: The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, the Aurora Dialogues, the Aurora Humanitarian Index, the Gratitude Projects and the 100 LIVES Initiative.

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative is the vision of philanthropists Vartan Gregorian, Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan who have been joined by several dozen new donors and partners. The Initiative welcomes all who embrace a commitment to our shared humanity.

About the Aurora Humanitarian Index

The Aurora Humanitarian Index is a special survey that examines public perceptions of major humanitarian issues. It explores the international public's attitudes toward both responsibility and effectiveness of humanitarian intervention, as well as the motivations that urge people to intervene on behalf of others.

The annual survey is conducted across multiple countries and its findings are presented each year during the Aurora Dialogues, an international platform for discussions among leading experts in the humanitarian community, as part of a weekend of events culminating with the presentation of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

Further information is available athttp://www.auroraprize.com 

About Kantar Public

Kantar Public is a research company which improves decision-making in the public realm through the application of data, insight and strategic consultancy. Kantar Public works with governments, the public sector, non-governmental organizations, institutions and corporations around the world, to help them deliver more effective policy, services and communications to the public.

Kantar Public teams blend the expertise in public policy, service design, behavioral insight, and election research, and draw upon world class research design capability and data collection infrastructure. Kantar Public drives methodological innovation to deliver public value to the clients. For further information, please visithttp://www.kantar.com/public/.

About Université Libre de Bruxelles

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is a French-speaking cosmopolitan university situated in Brussels Belgium. ULB bases its teaching and research on the principle of free inquiry. This postulates, in all domains, independence of judgement and the rejection of an authority-based conception of knowledge. Within ULB, the Group for Research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality(GERME), was involved in this research project.


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:41 AM GMT 


Growing fall-out from Trump's immigration crackdown


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 1083 words


The fall-out from President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown widened as residents and visa-holders from seven Muslim-majority countries who had left the United States found they could not return for 90 days.

It was a period of limbo for an unknown number of non-American citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen now barred from the country where they were studying or had lived, perhaps for years.

A federal law enforcement official who confirmed the temporary ban said there was an exemption for foreigners whose entry is in the US national interest. It was not immediately clear how that exemption might be applied. 

Mr Trump's order exempts diplomats and t hose already in the US with a visa or green card will be allowed to stay.

Airlines were being notified by Customs and Border Protection about passengers they needed to prevent from flying.

Mr Trump's order barred all refugees from entering the US for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria. He said the ban was needed to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists".

The next group of refugees was due to arrive in the US on Monday, but the official said they would not be allowed into the country.

The president's order immediately suspended a programme that last year resettled in the US about 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice.

Mr Trump indefinitely blocked those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged, and imposed a 90-day ban on all immigration to the US from the seven Muslim majority nations.

"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas," he said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. "We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."

Mr Trump said the halt in the refugee programme was necessary to give agencies time to develop a stricter screening system.

While the order did not spell out what additional steps he wants the departments of Homeland Security and State to take, the president directed officials to review the refugee application and approval process and find any more measures that could prevent those who pose a threat from using the refugee programme.

The US may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country".

In an interview with CBN News, Mr Trump said persecuted Christians would be given priority in applying for refugee status.

"We are going to help them," Mr Trump said. "They've been horribly treated."

The order was signed on Mr Trump's most robust day of national security and foreign policy at the start of his presidency.

As a candidate, Mr Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the US. He later shifted his focus to putting in place "extreme vetting" procedures to screen people coming to the US from countries with terrorism ties.

The State Department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would challenge the constitutionality of the executive order.

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena Masri, the group's national litigation director. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

During the past budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

According to Mr Trump's executive order, he plans to cut that to 50,000.

The International Rescue Committee called the suspension of the refugee resettlement programme a "harmful and hasty" decision.

IRC President David Miliband said: "America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope."

Mr Miliband praised the United States' record as a resettlement destination and said: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

The head of a leading refugee aid agency said the ban hurts innocents fleeing violence.

Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the decision "will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner".

He said the decision dealt a "mortal blow" to the idea of international responsibility for those fleeing persecution.

The US is leading a "race to the bottom" in which politicians in wealth countries provide "zero moral leadership", he said.

Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 to stop her campaigning for girls' education and co-winner of the 2014 Nobel peace prize, said she is heart-broken by the ban.

Ms Yousafzai implored Mr Trump "not to turn his back on the world's most defenceless children and families".

Refugees and immigrants, she said, have "helped build your country".

AP

Iran's foreign ministry announced it will limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation against the immigration crackdown.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry saying Iran will resort to "counteraction" to Mr Trump's executive order.

The statement said: "Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals."

The statement adds: "It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions."

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the US embassy.

AP

Two of the first people blocked from entering the United States were Iraqis with links to the US military.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi were detained by immigration officials after landing at New York's Kennedy airport on Friday night.

Darweesh had worked as an interpreter for the US Army when it invaded Iraq in 2003. Later he worked as a contract engineer.

He was allowed into the US on Saturday afternoon, hours after his lawyer petitioned a federal court to let the two men go.

In their court filing, his lawyers said Alshawai's wife had worked for a US security contractor in Iraq. Members of her family had been killed by insurgents because of their association with the US military.

AP


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:41 AM GMT 


Growing fall-out from Trump's immigration crackdown


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 963 words


The fall-out from President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown widened as residents and visa-holders from seven Muslim-majority countries who had left the United States found they could not return for 90 days.

It was a period of limbo for an unknown number of non-American citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen now barred from the country where they were studying or had lived, perhaps for years.

A federal law enforcement official who confirmed the temporary ban said there was an exemption for foreigners whose entry is in the US national interest. It was not immediately clear how that exemption might be applied. 

Mr Trump's order exempts diplomats and t hose already in the US with a visa or green card will be allowed to stay.

Airlines were being notified by Customs and Border Protection about passengers they needed to prevent from flying.

Mr Trump's order barred all refugees from entering the US for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria. He said the ban was needed to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists".

The next group of refugees was due to arrive in the US on Monday, but the official said they would not be allowed into the country.

The president's order immediately suspended a programme that last year resettled in the US about 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice.

Mr Trump indefinitely blocked those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged, and imposed a 90-day ban on all immigration to the US from the seven Muslim majority nations.

"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas," he said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. "We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."

Mr Trump said the halt in the refugee programme was necessary to give agencies time to develop a stricter screening system.

While the order did not spell out what additional steps he wants the departments of Homeland Security and State to take, the president directed officials to review the refugee application and approval process and find any more measures that could prevent those who pose a threat from using the refugee programme.

The US may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country".

In an interview with CBN News, Mr Trump said persecuted Christians would be given priority in applying for refugee status.

"We are going to help them," Mr Trump said. "They've been horribly treated."

The order was signed on Mr Trump's most robust day of national security and foreign policy at the start of his presidency.

As a candidate, Mr Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the US. He later shifted his focus to putting in place "extreme vetting" procedures to screen people coming to the US from countries with terrorism ties.

The State Department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would challenge the constitutionality of the executive order.

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena Masri, the group's national litigation director. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

During the past budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

According to Mr Trump's executive order, he plans to cut that to 50,000.

The International Rescue Committee called the suspension of the refugee resettlement programme a "harmful and hasty" decision.

IRC President David Miliband said: "America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope."

Mr Miliband praised the United States' record as a resettlement destination and said: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

The head of a leading refugee aid agency said the ban hurts innocents fleeing violence.

Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the decision "will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner".

He said the decision dealt a "mortal blow" to the idea of international responsibility for those fleeing persecution.

The US is leading a "race to the bottom" in which politicians in wealth countries provide "zero moral leadership", he said.

Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 to stop her campaigning for girls' education and co-winner of the 2014 Nobel peace prize, said she is heart-broken by the ban.

Ms Yousafzai implored Mr Trump "not to turn his back on the world's most defenceless children and families".

Refugees and immigrants, she said, have "helped build your country".

AP

Iran's foreign ministry announced it will limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation against the immigration crackdown.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry saying Iran will resort to "counteraction" to Mr Trump's executive order.

The statement said: "Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals."

The statement adds: "It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions."

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the US embassy.

AP


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:41 AM GMT 


Growing fall-out from Trump's immigration crackdown


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 1101 words


The fall-out from President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown widened as residents and visa-holders from seven Muslim-majority countries who had left the United States found they could not return for 90 days.

It was a period of limbo for an unknown number of non-American citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen now barred from the country where they were studying or had lived, perhaps for years.

A federal law enforcement official who confirmed the temporary ban said there was an exemption for foreigners whose entry is in the US national interest. It was not immediately clear how that exemption might be applied. 

Mr Trump's order exempts diplomats and t hose already in the US with a visa or green card will be allowed to stay.

Airlines were being notified by Customs and Border Protection about passengers they needed to prevent from flying.

Mr Trump's order barred all refugees from entering the US for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria. He said the ban was needed to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists".

The next group of refugees was due to arrive in the US on Monday, but the official said they would not be allowed into the country.

The president's order immediately suspended a programme that last year resettled in the US about 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice.

Mr Trump indefinitely blocked those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged, and imposed a 90-day ban on all immigration to the US from the seven Muslim majority nations.

"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas," he said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. "We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."

Mr Trump said the halt in the refugee programme was necessary to give agencies time to develop a stricter screening system.

While the order did not spell out what additional steps he wants the departments of Homeland Security and State to take, the president directed officials to review the refugee application and approval process and find any more measures that could prevent those who pose a threat from using the refugee programme.

The US may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country".

In an interview with CBN News, Mr Trump said persecuted Christians would be given priority in applying for refugee status.

"We are going to help them," Mr Trump said. "They've been horribly treated."

The order was signed on Mr Trump's most robust day of national security and foreign policy at the start of his presidency.

As a candidate, Mr Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the US. He later shifted his focus to putting in place "extreme vetting" procedures to screen people coming to the US from countries with terrorism ties.

The State Department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would challenge the constitutionality of the executive order.

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena Masri, the group's national litigation director. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

During the past budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

According to Mr Trump's executive order, he plans to cut that to 50,000.

The International Rescue Committee called the suspension of the refugee resettlement programme a "harmful and hasty" decision.

IRC President David Miliband said: "America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope."

Mr Miliband praised the United States' record as a resettlement destination and said: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

The head of a leading refugee aid agency said the ban hurts innocents fleeing violence.

Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the decision "will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner".

He said the decision dealt a "mortal blow" to the idea of international responsibility for those fleeing persecution.

The US is leading a "race to the bottom" in which politicians in wealth countries provide "zero moral leadership", he said.

Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 to stop her campaigning for girls' education and co-winner of the 2014 Nobel peace prize, said she is heart-broken by the ban.

Ms Yousafzai implored Mr Trump "not to turn his back on the world's most defenceless children and families".

Refugees and immigrants, she said, have "helped build your country".

AP

Iran's foreign ministry announced it will limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation against the immigration crackdown.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry saying Iran will resort to "counteraction" to Mr Trump's executive order.

The statement said: "Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals."

The statement adds: "It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions."

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the US embassy.

AP

Two of the first people blocked from entering the United States were Iraqis with links to the US military.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi were detained by immigration officials after landing at New York's Kennedy airport on Friday night.

Darweesh had worked as an interpreter for the US Army when it invaded Iraq in 2003. Later he worked as a contract engineer.

He was allowed into the US on Saturday afternoon, hours after his lawyer petitioned a federal court to let the two men go.

In their court filing, his lawyers said Alshawai's wife had worked for a US security contractor in Iraq. Members of her family had been killed by insurgents because of their association with the US military.

AP

Later Mr Trump said the crackdown "is not a Muslim ban" and said the measure was "working out very nicely."


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:41 AM GMT 


Growing fall-out from Trump's immigration crackdown


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 850 words


The fall-out from President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown widened as residents and visa-holders from seven Muslim-majority countries who had left the United States found they could not return for 90 days.

It was a period of limbo for an unknown number of non-American citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen now barred from the country where they were studying or had lived, perhaps for years.

A federal law enforcement official who confirmed the temporary ban said there was an exemption for foreigners whose entry is in the US national interest. It was not immediately clear how that exemption might be applied. 

Mr Trump's order exempts diplomats and t hose already in the US with a visa or green card will be allowed to stay.

Airlines were being notified by Customs and Border Protection about passengers they needed to prevent from flying.

Mr Trump's order barred all refugees from entering the US for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria. He said the ban was needed to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists".

The next group of refugees was due to arrive in the US on Monday, but the official said they would not be allowed into the country.

The president's order immediately suspended a programme that last year resettled in the US about 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice.

Mr Trump indefinitely blocked those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged, and imposed a 90-day ban on all immigration to the US from the seven Muslim majority nations.

"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas," he said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. "We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."

Mr Trump said the halt in the refugee programme was necessary to give agencies time to develop a stricter screening system.

While the order did not spell out what additional steps he wants the departments of Homeland Security and State to take, the president directed officials to review the refugee application and approval process and find any more measures that could prevent those who pose a threat from using the refugee programme.

The US may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country".

In an interview with CBN News, Mr Trump said persecuted Christians would be given priority in applying for refugee status.

"We are going to help them," Mr Trump said. "They've been horribly treated."

The order was signed on Mr Trump's most robust day of national security and foreign policy at the start of his presidency.

As a candidate, Mr Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the US. He later shifted his focus to putting in place "extreme vetting" procedures to screen people coming to the US from countries with terrorism ties.

The State Department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would challenge the constitutionality of the executive order.

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena Masri, the group's national litigation director. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

During the past budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

According to Mr Trump's executive order, he plans to cut that to 50,000.

The International Rescue Committee called the suspension of the refugee resettlement programme a "harmful and hasty" decision.

IRC President David Miliband said: "America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope."

Mr Miliband praised the United States' record as a resettlement destination and said: "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans."

The head of a leading refugee aid agency said the ban hurts innocents fleeing violence.

Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the decision "will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner".

He said the decision dealt a "mortal blow" to the idea of international responsibility for those fleeing persecution.

The US is leading a "race to the bottom" in which politicians in wealth countries provide "zero moral leadership", he said.

Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 to stop her campaigning for girls' education and co-winner of the 2014 Nobel peace prize, said she is heart-broken by the ban.

Ms Yousafzai implored Mr Trump "not to turn his back on the world's most defenceless children and families".

Refugees and immigrants, she said, have "helped build your country".

AP


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


March 8, 2017 Wednesday


Kenyan president reiterates closure of Dadaab refugee camp


LENGTH: 579 words


Text of report in English by Kenyan privately-owned newspaper Daily Nation website on 8 March;website subheadings

President Uhuru Kenyatta says the Dadaab refugee complex will have to be closed for the good of the region, in spite of incessant campaigns by rights groups to have the plan abandoned.

At a joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President Kenyatta argued the camp as it is today no longer serves its original purpose of offering temporary shelter. 

Repatriation

"Our policy has been clear for some time: The events that led to the establishment of Dadaab are terribly tragic and the best response to that tragedy is to help refugees to return and rebuild their nation," he said at State House, Nairobi.

"And that is Kenya's policy and our efforts to hasten repatriation and resettlement of refugees. But as always, these efforts shall remain guided by relevant domestic and international laws."

But Mr Guterres, touring the region for the first time, after taking over as the 9th UN chief, said he had had had "positive" discussions with the Kenyan President on various issues affecting the Horn of Africa.

4bn dollars

With drought ravaging the region, the UN has put up a 4bn-dollar funding appeal to deal with the crisis that has affected Kenya, Somalia, parts of Ethiopia and South Sudan.

On Tuesday he was in Mogadishu where he raised the alarm of a possible famine if new funding is not met. On Wednesday he was in Nairobi where he declared "total support" for efforts to combat drought in the country.

But the former head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also knows he has to plead with Kenya not to send back refugees just yet.

Court Order

President Kenyatta spoke just weeks after the High Court in Nairobi ruled that the planned repatriation of refugees would be unconstitutional. Justice John Mativo ruled that Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and his PS Karanja Kibicho had no powers to order closure of the camp, despite claims that there were serious security, environmental and economic concerns.

The government initially said it would appeal the decision.

IGAD meet

On Wednesday, the president said his government would continue to discuss the matter with stakeholders to find a possible solution.

On 25 March, Nairobi will be hosting an extra-ordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), a regional bloc of eight countries in the eastern Africa.

"The conference shows that Kenya is willing to consult and ready to listen to views from those who wish Somalia, and indeed our entire region, well," the president said.

260,000

Dadaab is the largest refugee camp in the world by population. At one time in 2011, it hosted up to 500,000 people mostly Somali refugees fleeing both violence and drought. That number has since dropped to 260,000, according to February figures from the UNHCR. In 2013, Kenya, Somalia and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement to have the refugees voluntarily returned.

3-year pact

But the challenge of funds, and the problem of convincing them to leave, meant the three-year agreement could not be met.

In February, UNHCR said the target for voluntary repatriation would be met as there are about 2,000 refugees leaving the camp every week on their own.

Kenya had argued the camp needed to be closed as soon as possible to eliminate the security threat it poses. Humanitarian agencies think different.

Source: Daily Nation website, Nairobi, in English 8 Mar 17


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walesonline.co.uk


January 29, 2017 Sunday 7:31 PM GMT 


What has Donald Trump done since becoming President? 10 controversial policies the billionaire has pursued;
During his campaign, Donald Trump made controversial remarks and promises about Muslims and Mexicans


BYLINE: By Steffan Rhys


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1567 words


Donald Trump became President of the United States on January 20, 2017.

Nine days in, and his highly controversial executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US - as well as banning refugees from Syria entering indefinitely - has resulted in a global backlash.

During his presidential campaign, Trump called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".

Also on the campaign he promised to "build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall". He added: "Mark my words." 

However, when he won the election and became president-elect, there was debate over whether he might row back a little from those statements.

Since taking power, these are the policies he has actually moved to enact.

'AMERICA FIRST' President Trump rams home his message in inauguration speech

Trump has blocked immigrants and visa holders from seven countries - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan - from entering the US for 90 days. Announcing his "extreme vetting" plan, he invoked the September 11 attacks. Most of the hijackers on that day were from Saudi Arabia. The rest were from the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon.

Referring to Islamic terrorists, Mr Trump was reported by the New York Times to say: "We don't want them here. We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas."

trump tweet

There is confusion around the order, but it seems to apply not just to refugees or immigrants seeking entry into the US for the first time, but even to people from those seven countries who currently hold green cards and are permanent US residents.

refugees tweet

So if they leave the US, they may not be allowed back in. Green-card holders already in the US are reportedly being advised to postpone plans to travel abroad. Somali-born athlete Mo Farah - a four-time Olympic champion for Great Britain who now lives in the US -says he is scared he will "have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home".

The restriction also applies to dual nationals. So a British citizen who is also a citizen of Iran will not be able to enter the US.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called it a "euphemism for discriminating against Muslims". A federal judge issued a temporary halt to the deportation of visa holders or refugees stranded at US airports, after the ACLU filed a lawsuit.

It had an immediate impact on people around the world, stranding legal residents of the US (and other countries) and travellers with visas at airports, where confusion reigned.

refugees tweet 2

On Sunday evening, a top White House official appeared to reverse a key part of the order,the New York Times reported, saying that people from the affected countries who hold green cards will not be prevented from returning to the United States. However, he also said border agents had "discretionary authority" to detain and question suspicious travelers from certain countries.

The US Refugee Admissions Programme has been suspended for 120 days. This suspends the entry of refugees into the US and directs officials to determine additional screening "to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States". He also set a cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted to the US in 2017. Barack Obama had set the limit at 110,000.

Raymond Offensheiser, the president of Oxfam America, said: "The refugees impacted by today's decision are among the world's most vulnerable people... who are simply trying to find a safe place to live after fleeing unfathomable violence and loss."

There is a critical humanitarian crisis in Syria, where civilians have been dying in huge numbers as a result of the country's civil war.

Almost five million people have been displaced from Syria since the civil war began - in 2016, 12,587 of them ended up in the US as refugees, saidThe Guardian,who also reported that America's Syrian refugee resettlement programme has been called "one of the most important in the world". According to the UN, more than 400,000 people have died in Syria's civil war.

Trump's order stops the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely.

Why is there war in Syria?

Another executive order signed by Trump reinstated the so-called "global gag rule", to use the term adopted by its critics.According to Vox, "this is a a policy from previous Republican administrations that blocks federal funding from international family planning organisations that 'either provide abortion or discuss abortion services with their clients'."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said this would "end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions overseas, along with coercive abortion and sterilization practices". However, Vox reports that there's already a law in place to prevent foreign aid from being used to provide aboritions. The "global gag rule" goes further by also taking funding from international organisations that discuss abortion services (which could then be privately funded).

Trump is not the first to do this, though. The policy was introduced in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Since then, every Democratic president has rescinded the measure and every Republican has brought it back.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said: "We know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and abortions."

This is how sexist society still is in 2017

This executive order called on the Department of Homeland Security to "take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border". A second order pledges to hire 10,000 more immigration officers.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he was going to build the wall, which he described as "beautiful", and insisted it would be paid for by the Mexican government, who have repeatedly said they won't be doing that.

The US-Mexico border is 1,989 miles long and there are already fences built along parts of it. However, the US doesn't own all of the land adjacent to the border, law professor Philip Schragtold CBS. He said: "In Texas, apparently there are a great many of the lands adjacent to the border in private hands, so the government would first have to seize the land by eminent domain or purchase it from the owners and then deal with the construction problems".

The Keystone pipeline is a 1,179-mile pipeline being built, running from Canada to America's Gulf Coast. It would carry petroleum. Its construction was halted by Barack Obama in 2015, with concerns over how its continued construction squared with a commitment to climate change.

The Dakota Access pipeline would carry crude oil from the state of North Dakota to other parts of the country. There have been massive protests over its construction after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said the pipeline interfered with their drinking water. And in December, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would explore an alternative route.

Trump signed memoranda that renew the process for constructing both pipelines.

Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP) negotiations began under President Obama. Trump has issued a memorandum that called on the US to pull out of the partnership. The deal had never actually gone into effect in the US.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) was a huge overhaul of the US healthcare system done by the previous president's administration. Its aim was to extend health insurance coverage to those in the US that didn't have it (an estimated 15%). It did this by requiring all Americans to have health insurance but offering subsidies to make coverage more affordable. It also required businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance. Republicans have constantly opposed it, however, saying it imposes too many costs on business and intrudes too far into the lives and affairs of private businesses and individuals.

One of the first things Trump did as president was to issue a directive to federal agencies involved in the healthcare system to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" any portion of the Affordable Care Act that creates financial burden on states, individuals or healthcare providers. He said this should be done "to the maximum extent permitted by law". This order technically does not give these agencies any powers they don't already have - it's been described more as "a planted flag".

Trump signed an order that he said would result in "a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States". He called for budget negotiations to acquire new planes, ships and resources.

Trump said America's "military strength will be questioned by no one, but neither will the nation's commitment to peace."

Trump issued a memorandum imposing a freeze on all federal civilian employees "across the board". No vacant positions were allowed to be filled and no new positions could be created "except in limited circumstances". The memorandum does not apply to military personnel. Trump wants to reduce government debts and decrease the size of the federal workforce.


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


'This is the worst call by far': Donald Trump slams Malcolm Turnbull over refugee plan then HUNG UP on the hour-long call after just 25 minutes 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 765 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over the proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during the pair's first telephone conversation.  

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the two allied leaders in just 25 minutes. 

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.  

In response to revelations of the phone conversation, Mr Turnbull said on Thursday that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said. 

The US president reportedly ranted about the the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island when the pair spoke on Sunday morning. 

The Post also reported the president told Mr Turnbull it was his 'intention' to honour the refugee agreement.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal.

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation.

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said.

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

The White House has backtracked on the asylum seeker deal with Australia, saying United States  President Donald Trump is still considering it.

After a phone call with Mr Trump on Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the US president had agreed to honour the deal for 1250 refugees on Manus Island and Nauru to resettle in the US.

But on Wednesday, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

This comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru. 

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru. 

On Sunday, the Prime Minister and Mr Trump has a 25-minute phone call where the US President confirmed the refugee deal.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said Mr Turnbull was 'pleased with the outcome' of his discussion.

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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telegraph.co.uk


February 22, 2017 Wednesday 8:41 PM GMT 


Refugees seeking a new life stream across Canadian border due to 'anti-immigrant feeling' in Donald Trump's America


BYLINE: By David Millward


SECTION: NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 1139 words


It is just a 12 foot wide ditch at the end of an unmade road in rural Quebec where the border between the US and Canada is marked by an orange wooden stake and a five feet high stone obelisk.

This ditch at St Bernard de Lacolle, about an hour's drive south of Montreal, is just one of the unmanned border crossings along the 5,000 mile long border that has seen a surge in the number of asylum seekers since Donald Trump won the White House.

What was once a slow trickle is becoming a steady stream as asylum seekers are more confident of a friendly reception from Justin Trudeau's government than the United States under Donald Trump.

In early February, 42 asylum claims were filed in just a weekend at Quebec's land borders. In January there were 506 applications in total and many believe the number will increase. Colombia, Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and Burundi topped the applications list. 

"It seems to be a combination of the US election, the general anti-immigrant feeling that it seems to be creating and many other international factors," said Eric Taillefer, vice president of the Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association.

Watch | Trudeau: I won't lecture Trump on refugees 00:50

The unmanned crossings are the route of choice for refugees because of the Safe Third Country agreement between the US and Canada which sets out the rules for claiming asylum. 

Refugees presenting themselves at an official border crossing will be turned back by the Canadian authorities because they should have applied for asylum in the United States.

The same rules do not apply for hundreds of refugees who have pitched up at a remote unmanned crossing point.

If the refugees are in America legally, then US border officials are powerless to intervene as they make their way towards Canada.

"There are a lot of country roads," said David Cohen, a Quebec-based immigration lawyer.

"If you can make a case that you have a legitimate fear of persecution then you are entitled to become a lawful permanent resident which means you can get health care and can work," Mr Cohen said.

The border between the US and CanadaCredit: David Millward

There has been significant cross border traffic elsewhere including Emerson, a town on the Manitoba-North Dakota border.

At St Bernard de Lacolle the normal means of reaching the ditch is to take a taxi from Plattsburgh in New York, about 27 miles to the south. The going rate for a ride seems to be in the region of $200 (£161). Trying to walk through the woods is not advised given the presence of the odd bear and cougar.

At least one of the families told their taxi driver they were making the trip to escape Donald Trump.

Once they arrive,  there is a welcoming committee  of RCMP police waiting for them. 

Being arrested and taken into the custody is the object of the exercise.

Canadian police officer carries a refugee babyCredit: David Millward/The Telegraph

What follows is almost a ritual. A Canadian police officer stands in the ditch and tells the new arrivals  they are committing an offence should they go beyond the orange stake.

The warnings are ignored and the refugees are arrested, handcuffed and handed over to the Canadian Border Services Agency for their asylum applications to be processed after questioning at an office in Lacolle nearby.

There was no attempt to resist being arrested on Monday when refugees from Sudan, Yemen, Turkey, Syria, Mauritania and Eritrea clambered or, given the snow, slid through the ditch to reach Canada.

The police were a model of restraint as they went through the formalities of processing the refugees.

A basket carrying a crying baby was carried carefully to a waiting police car. The new arrivals, huddled in hoodies and puffer jackets as protection against the freezing temperatures, were handcuffed almost apologetically.

On this occasion the new arrivals were whisked away quickly. But earlier this month Yasser Ahmed, a Yemeni computer programmer who had lived in Saudi Arabia, had the time to describe why he made the long journey from the Middle East.

Refugees arrive at St Bernard de Lacolle in Quebec after crossing from the United States.Credit: David Millward/The Telegraph

"After 10 years in Saudi Arabia, what do I have?" he told the Montreal Gazette.

"I have nothing. But I am not sad about this. Here I am in a safe country with my life with my health and with my wife." 

The dramatic rise in numbers has seen a slight change of tactics by the police, explained Beryl Tovim, 84. Originally from Hackney, she has lived a couple of hundred yards away from the ditch for decades.

The Canada (right)/United States borderCredit: Paul Chiasson/AP

"They used to be able to get into the village and then they would ask if they were in Canada and then ask us to call the police.

"Last winter there were people underneath the canvas or in the barns. We would give them a glass of water, they were not looking to hide.

"The police pick them up, they are not treated badly, they are just put into a van."

A refugee claimant from Mauritania crosses the border into Canada from the United StateCredit: Paul Chiasson/AP

The increased number of refugees and police represents something of a change for St Bernard de Lacolle, a small farming community in an area dotted with orchards and even the odd vineyard, which did rather well out of prohibition.

Police now believe it is easier to pick the refugees up as they cross the ditch, rather than allowing them to make their way inland.

Not every arrival is benign. In December somebody was arrested crossing the border with 23 handguns.

Police are also investigating those responsible for what they regard as human trafficking.

But their approach is tempered by awareness of the wars and disasters which have prompted the refugees to flee and the plight of those who arrive at the border.

Timeline | Donald Trumps travel ban

"I am a father of two myself," said Brian Byrne, the RCMP's local detachment commander.

"We try to make their misery as short as possible."

Not everybody is happy with the softly softly approach of the police and the tolerant immigration policy of Justin Trudeau's government.

Ginette BarrièreCredit: David Millward

"There is no work for people in Quebec," said Ginette Barrière, 65. "There are no good jobs and we don't have money for the old people. But all we are doing is giving, giving, giving."

At the moment the arrivals at the remote crossing points come from global trouble spots in the Middle East and Africa. But David Cohen's experience as an immigration lawyer suggests there could be a shift in the months ahead.

"There are a lot of undocumented immigrants in the United States. If Donald Trump goes ahead with the deportations some may decide they would rather come here than be returned to central America."


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Chaos at JFK: Protesters descend on airport after 12 travelers are held overnight in confusion at Trump immigration ban - and only TWO have been released so far 


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1881 words



Demonstrators held a massive protest at New York City's JFK airport throughout Saturday after 12 refugees were detained following Donald Trump's immigration ban.

The group was held after flying to the United States following the president's executive order, banning all refugees and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. 

One of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America. 

The 53-year-old walked free from detention on Saturday afternoon after arriving in America on a flight from Istanbul the night before. The second detainee, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was released around 7 pm Saturday after 24 hours. 

Scroll down for video 

Ten people are still being detained. 

'I'm sleepy and tired and exhausted,' Alshawi told the New York Post after he was released.

Cabs at the airport went on strike for an hour from 6 pm to 7 pm to protest against the ban.

Travelers reported that police stopped allowing people without plane tickets onto the Air Train, which goes to the airport terminals, during the evening.  

Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, ordered authorities to let protesters onto the Air Train, saying in a statement relayed by ABC that 'one of the fundamental rights that is granted to the people of this country is the right to peacefully protest'.

 A sea of protesters gathered outside JFK's Terminal 4 as hundreds of demonstrators remained at the airport Saturday night.

Earlier on Saturday, Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release, as a crowd of supporters cheered him on. 

'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside the airport.

'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom... America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.' 

Asked what he thought of Trump he said: 'I don't know. He's a president, I'm a normal person.' 

He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America. 

WHO EXACTLY IS BANNED FROM THE U.S? 

Any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen is now barred from entering the United States.

That covers legal permanent residents - green card holders - and visa-holders from those seven countries who were out of the United States after Friday, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the temporary ban. They cannot return to the U.S. for 90 days.

There's an exemption for immigrants and legal permanent residents whose entry is in the U.S. national interest, but it's unclear how that exemption will be applied.

Visa and green card holders already in the U.S. will be allowed to stay.

Customs and Border Protection is notifying airlines about passengers whose visas have been canceled or legal residents scheduled to fly back to the U.S. Airlines are being told to keep them off those flights.

Source: Associated Press 

Lawyers for Darweesh and another Iraqi who is still detained at JFK filed a lawsuit on Saturday morning in a bid to have them released. 

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them on Friday night and took their passports when they landed in New York.

Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi - who approved for a visa on January 11 - was flying to America to join his wife and son in Texas.

Eleven other refugees are still being held at JFK airport. Protesters gathered outside the airport on Saturday in anger over those being held in detention.

Cairo airport officials said seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world. 

It is not clear exactly how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4:30 pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It comes as Iran's foreign ministry suggested the country would limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation for Trump's suspension of immigration and visas.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday that said Iran will resort to 'counteraction' to Trump's executive order.

'Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals,' the statement read. 

'It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions.'

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the U.S. embassy. 

SYRIAN REFUGEE'S DREAM OF MOVING TO U.S. SHATTERED:

Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said. 

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order,  Bloomberg reports. 

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.' 


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 27, 2017 Friday 9:58 PM GMT 


Donald Trump signs executive order to ban refugees and rebuild the military;
Syrian refugees will be banned 'indefinitely'. Refugees from the other six countries will be banned for 120 days


BYLINE: Rachael Revesz


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 603 words


Donald Trump has signed two executive orders to ban refugees from entering the US and to rebuild the military.

One order begins the process, in his view, or building up the armed forces, while the other is designed to prohibit radical terrorists from entering the country, but acts as a temporary, blanket ban for any refugee coming to the US.

"This is big stuff," he said, signing the order in front of a raft of cameras. 

Read more

Trump to ban refugees from some Muslim countries today

It is the first act to institute a threat he first gave in December 2015 shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris, when he said all Muslims should be banned from the country.

Muslims will be the biggest victim of the new executive order, which was dialled down since 2015 to only target immigrants from seven Muslim-dominated countries: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. No new visas will be issued from these countries for 30 days.These countries are affected by conflict and terrorism, but anyone escaping persecution and death will be barred from refuge in the US.

Syrian refugees will be banned "indefinitely". It already takes around two years for Syrian refugees to be vetted and enter the US.

Refugees coming here are screened by the National Counterterrorism Center, FBI, Defense and State depts, US Customs, and border protection.

- ACLU National (@ACLU) January 27, 2017

Refugees from the other six countries will be banned for 120 days.

"[This is a] measure to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of America. We don't want them here," said Mr Trump.

He warned that the US should never forget the attacks of 9/11 or those who lost their lives in the Pentagon.

FindTheData.org | Graphiq

"We don't want to admit the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those that support our country and love, deeply, our people."

It is yet to be defined how the President will carry out his proposal of "extreme vetting" and the "religious test" of incoming immigrants when the ban is lifted.

Rep Michael McCaul, the Republican and Homeland Security chairman, told CNN that Christians from Syria would not pose a terrorist threat to the US compared to Muslims.

"It seems to be they [Christians] would be top of the list," he said.

I promise that our administration will ALWAYS have your back. We will ALWAYS be with you! pic.twitter.com/D0aOWhOhlX

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2017

The President has been widely condemned for threatening to institute this order, which was seen as discriminatory.

It was signed on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a reminder that the US barred tens of thousands of Jews from a safe haven when more than six million of their people were being murdered by Nazis.

He then signed another executive order to rebuild the military, to build "new planes, new ships, tools and resources".

In 2015, the US spent $598 billion on the military.

Read more

The Muslim country Trump isn't banning refugees from

Boris Johnson refuses to criticise Donald Trump's plan to ban refugees

Trump expected to order Mexican border wall and ban refugees

"As we prepare our budget request for Congress, our military strength will be questioned by no one and neither will our dedication to peace. And we do want peace," he said.

The orders were signed while General James Mattis was being sworn in as defense secretary.

"I want to extend a very special congratulations to a great man and that's Secretary Mattis," he said. "I think he's going to lead us so brilliantly. He's a tremendous solider, always has been. He's a general's general."


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


American army translator who worked for the government for TEN YEARS walks free from detention after he was initially blocked from entering the U.S. and held for 17 hours


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1603 words



One of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 17 hours when he tried to enter the United States after Trump signed an executive order has now been released from New York's JFK airport.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh walked free from detention on Saturday afternoon after he flew into the airport the night before, just hours after Trump signed off on his tough new immigration bans. 

The 53-year-old had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America.

He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America. 

Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release.

'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside.

'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom... America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.'  

Scroll down for video 

Lawyers for Darweesh and another Iraqi who is still detained at JFK filed a lawsuit on Saturday morning in a bid to have them released. 

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them on Friday night and took their passports when they landed in New York.

Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi - who is also believed to have had ties to the U.S. military - was flying to America to join his wife and son in Texas.

Cairo airport officials said seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world. 

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country. 

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

TRUMP'S LIST FOR 'EXTREME VETTING' MEASURES: 

Trump's executive order provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm'.

They include:


Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have excluded from the order.

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey, the NY Daily News reports. 

SYRIAN REFUGEE'S DREAM OF MOVING TO U.S. SHATTERED:

Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'


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Daily Star Online


June 18, 2017 Sunday 9:00 PM GMT 


Calais Jungle in BRITAIN? Loss of EU law to make UK refugee capital of Europe


BYLINE: Michael Havis


LENGTH: 658 words


BRITAIN is about to become the last chance saloon for every refugee in Europe - and it's all down to Brexit.

GETTY

FINAL DESTINATION: A little known EU law has stopped many refugees from staying in Britain

If borders checks move back across the channel, we may end up with camps like the Calais Jungle in Kent. 

So far we've been saved from the worst of the Mediterranean migrant crisis by various agreements.

But with Brexit straining relations with our neighbours, those deals could soon be history.

Victoria Roeck

If that happens, the border moves back to Britain and we have to process all asylum applications here.

The Dublin Regulation means asylum seekers should apply to stay in the first European Union member state they enter.

It's an EU rule that's seen Britain deport thousands of refugees who'd already passed through countries closer to conflict zones.

But it also means that anyone whose application for asylum has been rejected by one EU state can't expect a different answer in another.

The Jungle refugee camp Calais France migrants crisis Europe pictures

Once Brexit kicks in, however, the Dublin deal no longer applies and every rejected refugee in Europe will have a new place to make their case - the UK.

And there's no guarantee they'll be stopped at the French frontier, with President Emmanuel Macron planning to shake up the border.

Mr Macron has pledged to renegotiate the Le Touquet agreement, under which Britain does its border checks in France.

If he scraps the deal, a two-year countdown begins, after which Kent faces having migrant camps like the Jungle.

GETTY

DEMOLISHED: The Calais Jungle became notorious as an improvised camp for refugees and migrants

And though the UK might be able to negotiate to keep the Dublin deal, the rules may soon change to send more migrants north anyway.

Because asylum seekers are tied to the first EU state they reach, Britain - far removed from war zones - has a buffer against the refugee crisis.

So to make the deal fairer on southern Europe, the EU may spread the burden across all member states - a change Britain can't influence from outside the EU.

Ultimately it means the UK faces a "take-it-or-leave-it" choice on refugees, said Victoria Roeck, writing in the Yale Journal of International Law.

WIKIPEDIA - DANLAYCOCK

BIG DEAL: The Dublin rules apply to EU states , non-EU states and Denmark

She writes: "Either accept a new Dublin system that would no longer shield the UK from responsibility toward asylum seekers.

"Or reject [the] Dublin [regulation] and lose the ability to transfer asylum seekers to other EU countries."

In any case, Ms Roeck wrote, the EU is unlikely to let the UK keep the deal because of its attitude towards immigration.

Whilst Norway and Switzerland, both non-EU members, are part of the bargain, the two countries are in the Schengen free-movement zone.

"It would seem unequal to allow the UK to send refugees back to other EU countries while EU citizens no longer get free movement to the UK," she wrote.

And though Brexit may mean more control over normal migration, refugees must be processed using United Nations rules, with or without the EU.

Under the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention, which Britain has signed, there are strong protections for asylum seekers' rights to remain.

The government has not revealed whether it will seek to retain the Dublin regulation, calling it a "key part of the considerations of leaving the EU."

Related articles Death of the UK: Second Scottish referendum 'highly likely' after Brexit win 'We'll put the Spanish flag on the Rock' Spain makes grab for Gibraltar after Brexit vote 'We're outta here!' Wales in UK independence threat despite backing Brexit


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dailyrecord.co.uk


February 22, 2017 Wednesday 2:11 PM GMT 


Wishaw councillor asks why Syrian refugees should get larger homes in town;
Sam Love welcomed the move to bring the refugees to Wishaw but believes handing them houses, rather than maisonettes or flats, could provoke anger among locals struggling to move into larger council properties.


BYLINE: By Ross Thomson


SECTION: NEWS,LOCAL NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 546 words


A Wishaw councillor has questioned Syrian refugees being given larger houses in the town at the expense of those on the council housing register.

Preparations are well under way to welcome up to 24 Syrian refugees, currently living in Beirut, to Wishaw. 

However, speaking at a meeting of Coltness Community Council, Councillor Sam Love welcomed the move but believes handing the refugees houses, rather than maisonettes or flats, could provoke anger among locals struggling to move into larger council homes.

Councillor Love said: "Bringing Syrian families to Wishaw is a good thing.

"It's fantastic we are helping these people who have seen things we could not imagine.

"However, these families are moving into houses with front and back doors and gardens.

"I can see councillors getting a lot of flack about this and I think it could cause problems for local councillors.

"We want to help these people and we need to help them but they can't be jumping into these homes."

The Independent Alliance member added: "Some people on the housing register are waiting 10 to 15 years for a house with a front and back garden.

"One hundred per cent of our homes in North Lanarkshire meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard whether it be a maisonette, homes in a tower block or flat.

"I've spoken to other councillors and they agree with me.

"These refugees deserve to be here after what they have went through but we are going to have people coming to us who have been waiting on a house for their kids for years asking why they can't get one."

North Lanarkshire Council will resettle 180 Syrian refugees in the period 2015-2020, as part of the UK Government's Syrian Resettlement Programme.

Last year, the United Nations identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance with over 4.8 million being refugees outside of Syria.

The UK Government plans to accept 20,000 refugees over a period of five years taken from refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan.

Councillor Pat O'Rourke, Convener of the Syrian Resettlement Programme, said: "North Lanarkshire is proud to be fully supporting the Syrian Resettlement Programme, which provides a safe and secure future for some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

"These refugees meet the vulnerable criteria, which has been set down by the British Government, due to them suffering from very complex health issues.

"The properties which were available to us in Wishaw have been matched to the requirements of the six families arriving and are appropriate to their complex health needs.

"Each year in North Lanarkshire around 3000 properties become available to rent.

"Six hundred of these are in the Wishaw area which is the highest number of available properties in any of our localities.

"It saddens me that some would seek to make political capital from a desperate situation."

Motherwell and Wishaw MP Marion Fellows added: "I am delighted that Wishaw will be welcoming six new families as part of North Lanarkshire's Syrian Refugee resettlement programme.

"I look forward to ensuring that they are given a warm welcome into the constituency and feel safe and stable in their new communities.

"If any community groups, charities or organisation want further information as to how they too can offer support please get in touch."


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Express Online


January 29, 2017 Sunday 12:32 AM GMT 


Theresa May vows to STAND UP FOR BRITONS as she condemns Trump's 'Muslim ban'


BYLINE: Fraser Moore


LENGTH: 610 words


THE Prime Minister has insisted she will make "representations" if US President Donald Trump's controversial refugee ban hits British citizens.

Downing Street said Theresa May does "not agree" with Trump's executive order after the Prime Minister was slammed for her refusal to condemn the policy.

Trump had signed an action barring refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries, leading the White House to deny the ban targets Muslims specifically. 

But there were a slew of arrests as thousands of protesters gathered at international airports across the US to protest the executive order.

Related articles Trump orders BAN on refugees coming from Muslim countries Iran BANS US citizens in retaliation over Trump's visa ban

GETTY

Theresa May has slammed President Trump over his controversial refugee ban

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said immigration policy in the US "is a matter for the government of the United States, just the same as immigration policy for this country should be set by our government.

"But we do not agree with this kind of approach and it is not one we will be taking.

"We are studying this new executive order to see what it means and what the legal effects are, and in particular what the consequences are for UK nationals.

GETTY

Donald Trump signed the refugee ban executive order on Friday

"If there is any impact on UK nationals then clearly we will make representations to the US government about that."

Mrs May dodged questions from journalists during a visit to Turkey after meeting President Trump in a historic Washington visit.

She told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees.

GETTY

Anti-Trump protesters chanted 'refugees welcome' and 'let them in'

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

Her comments sparked fury, including criticism from some Tory MPs.

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who British citizen of Iraqi origin, said a US immigration lawyer had confirmed he would be affected by the ban.

He tweeted: "A sad sad day to feel like a second-class citizen. Sad day for the USA.

REUTERS

Thousands gathered at protests across the US to oppose the travel ban

"Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual nationality.

"I'm a British citizen and so proud to have been welcomed to this country.

GETTY

Some travellers were reportedly detained upon arrival at airports in the US

"Sad to hear I'll be banned from the USA based on my country of birth."

The executive order, signed on Friday, closed the US border for 90 days to individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.

Discussing the ban, the President said: "It's not a Muslim ban, but we were totally prepared. It's working out very nicely.

"You see it at the airports, you see it all over."

At New York's John F Kennedy Airport, 11 people were reportedly in detention after arriving from Iraq and other banned countries, according to two Democratic members of congress.

Thousands gathered outside the major transport hub at 7PM local time , chanting "let them in" and "refugees welcome here".

Related articles Asylum seekers say they are 'treated like animals' in UK homes Trump calls for 'AGGRESSIVE' military strategy to defeat ISIS White House hails 'POSITIVE CALL' between Trump and Putin


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Express Online


February 14, 2017 Tuesday 9:45 PM GMT 


'No respect' Twitter backlash as luvvie celebs call on May to let more migrants into UK


BYLINE: Belinda Robinson


LENGTH: 650 words


A HOST of celebrities have been slammed on Twitter after they demanded Theresa May brings more child refugees to Britain under the Dubs scheme.

The scheme, named after its architect, Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs, will be stopped after another 150 unaccompanied children are brought to Britain, on top of the 200 already in the UK. 

But a backlash quickly developed online as commenters hit out at the 200 celebrities - including Carey Mulligan, Gary Lineker and Keira Knightley - who signed an open letter to Theresa May asking the Prime Minister to bring more refugees into the country. 

One user tweeted: "I have no respect for Gary Linekar!

"He is too happy calling people of different views horrible names.

"Racists, anti-immigration, white supremacists, etc, when actually we are far from it."

Getty

A backlash quickly developed online as commenters hit out at the 200 celebrities

And another tweeted: "Put them in your own house if you want them here. Grown men pretending to be children, vomit inducing."

The letter signed by the artists was backed by Help Refugees and Citizen UK's Safe Passage programme.

It states that it is "completely unacceptable" to "slam the door shut after just 350 children have reached safety". 

Related articles Ken Loach blasted for using refugee children as 'political props' Army of luvvie celebs demand PM May brings more child migrant to UK

Getty

Prime Minister Theresa May is being urged not to scrap the Dubs programme for child migrants

Getty

A host of celebrities have urged Theresa May to allow more child migrants into the UK

It reads: "Lord Dubs was himself a child saved by Sir Nicholas Winton who rescued 669 children virtually single-handed. 

"It is embarrassing that the Prime Minister's entire Government will not even manage to match the example set by her former constituent all those years ago, let alone the efforts of the Kindertransport movement of which he was a part which saved 10,000 children from the Nazis." 

The government announced earlier this month that it would be scrapping the programme for resettling lone youngsters from mainland Europe to the UK.

But it has faced a chorus of opposition to its plans from celebrities and members of the opposition parties.

Getty

Jude Law and Ralph Fiennes are among the actors who signed the letter to Ms May

Deputy Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron renewed calls for Theresa May not to abandon child refugees by scrapping the Dubs scheme, the Lib Dem Press Office tweeted on Tuesday.

But this was met with a tide of anger on the social media site.

One user tweeted: "Typical Lib Dems. Putting these fake 'child refugees' ahead of the British people."

"How about the 900 Syrian "refugees" arrested for a variety of crimes, including sex crimes. 

Another tweeted: "Tim please explain why we need to rescue child refugees from France... please."

Related videos Former UKIP MEP: Child refugees in UK are 'grown men' Danish minister: Child refugees will be separated from adults Ferrari: Child refugees should look like children

Despite this, artists, authors, actors, musicians and broadcasters including Coldplay, Juliet Stevenson, Gok Wan, Caroline Flack, Jude Law, Michael Morpurgo, Douglas Booth, Joely Richardson, Lily Allen, Sir Mark Rylance and Ruby Wax - have signed the letter to Mrs May.

Josie Naughton, co-founder of Help Refugees, said: "The outpouring of support for the continuation of the Dubs scheme by these well-known figures and the public demonstrates that its closure is at odds with the British values that make this country great."

However, one commenter hit back online.

The user tweeted: "We wouldn't mind if they were children but the last lot obviously were not. Trying to fool the public backfired."

Related articles Government accused of ignoring Calais children Reporter questions Calais migrants hoping to enter Britain Shame on our country! Farron bawls after Dubs Amendment is scrapped


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The Independent - Daily Edition


February 10, 2017 Friday  
First Edition


Rudd defends 'shameful' decision to scrap scheme for vulnerable children


BYLINE: JON STONE


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5


LENGTH: 562 words


The Government has defended its early closure of the child refugees scheme, arguing that the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe. Last year ministers said they would accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees but in a statement, snuck out during the Brexit debate on Wednesday evening, the Home Office announced it would be taking just 350.

In an urgent question in Parliament yesterday Labour's refugee taskforce spokesperson, Yvette Cooper, branded the measure "shameful" but ministers defended the move. "The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," Amber Rudd said. "The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach." 

Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 includes a demand for the Government to make arrangements to relocate and support a "specified number" of unaccompanied child refugees from Europe to the UK. Ms Rudd said she was "proud" of the Government's policy on the issue. Later, when told children were returning to the camps in Calais, which were cleared last year, she said: "Perhaps it is because they think they could continue to go to the UK. Does it help them? It does not. What would help those children is if they could have their claims processed in France."

Ms Rudd insisted that the scheme was "not closing" but merely that it would not take in as many children as had been suggested in Parliamentary debates. The Government conceded the child refugee scheme last year after a campaign by Lord Dubs, a former Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis in the 1930s as part of the Kindertransport scheme. However the Government attracted bad publicity for the scheme after a media campaign against the children by right-wing tabloid newspapers at the end of last year. The newspapers claimed that some of the refugees in the scheme did not look young enough to be eligible for it.

Ms Cooper said: "Once those 350 children are here, that's it, it is closed. Where does it say in the Hansard debate that I have here from our debates in the Dubs amendment that we will only help lone child refugees for less than six months. Where does it say that instead of the 3,000 that Parliament debated we will only help a tenth of that number? Where does it say that when we get the chance we will somehow turn our backs once again. It doesn't because we didn't say that at the time. The Home Secretary knows what she is doing is shameful."

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: "The worst thing about this Government's failure to step up to the totality of the refugee crisis is the children. How does she live with herself leaving thousands of people, members opposite can jeer, leaving thousands of children, subject to disease, people trafficking, squalor and hopelessness?" Charities hit out at the Government's claims about the scheme. Steve Symonds, director of Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights programme, said: "The Home Secretary has this horribly wrong. By restricting its commitment to providing a safe route out of deprived, demeaning and dangerous situations elsewhere, the Government will only exacerbate the risk that these children fall victim to traffickers and other abusers."


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The Independent - Daily Edition


March 15, 2017 Wednesday  
First Edition


Lord Dubs condemns Government's decision to scrap child refugee scheme


BYLINE: JON STONE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 12


LENGTH: 514 words


The former 1930s child refugee who convinced David Cameron to accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees has said he does not understand why Theresa May has scrapped the scheme. Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as part of the Kindertransport scheme, dismissed the Government's stated reasons for scrapping the scheme and said he had "honestly" no idea why the scheme had really been closed.

"I try and understand, when I disagree with the Government, and politically of course I'm bound to be in this position on a whole range of issues, why they're doing what they're doing," he told the House of Commons International Development Select Committee. "In this case I honestly don't understand why they've done it. We're talking about very small numbers, we know that if we take children then fewer of them get trafficked - at the time when the Jungle was going the more they felt they could come legally the less they came on the back of a truck. I honestly do not understand in my heart of hearts why the Government has chosen to close it down in this way." He added: "They could have easily kept it going for a bit longer and taken a few more." 

The scheme was originally expected to take 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees from the continent but the Government announced at the start of the year that it would be closing after just 350. Ministers have claimed that local councils do not have enough space to take child refugees, and that the so-called "Dubs Scheme" encourages people trafficking and acts a pull factor for refugees from conflicts in the Middle East to make the journey to Europe.

Lord Dubs however dismissed these arguments: "They said they wanted to stop the scheme because the scheme encouraged trafficking. To which I would say, emphatically not - when there are legal paths to safety the traffickers don't get a way in. We know that traffickers do best when there's no legal way in." He added that he had spoken to local councils about taking more refugees and that many had volunteered spaces.

"I think there's a great misunderstanding on the part of the Home Office if they actually believe that," he said. "I've spoken to local authority leaders who say they're open to taking more, they're happy to take more, and indeed up and down the country. I'm not saying all local authorities can and they do have financial difficulties. But on both counts I think the Government are wrong." He added that it was unlikely that the scheme was causing people to make the journey to Europe as the legislation included a specific cut-off date and that new refugees would not be eligible for it.

Closing the scheme last month, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she was "proud" of the Government's policy on child refugees. "The Government has always been clear that we do not want to incentivise perilous journeys to Europe particularly by the most vulnerable children," Ms Rudd said at the time. "The section 67 obligation was accepted on the measure that it would not act as a pull factor to Europe. The Government has a clear strategy and we believe this is the right approach."


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mirror.co.uk


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 1:19 PM GMT 


Celebrities who you might not realise are refugees - and did amazing things;
People do incredible things, despite hardships


BYLINE: By Joshua Barrie


SECTION: NEWS,UK NEWS


LENGTH: 663 words


Everyone is talking about the refugee crisis. More so since Donald Trump's 'Muslim Ban'.

Britain, like the US, is a place people risk their lives to come to when fleeing unimaginable hardships.

Of course, refugees aren't just pitted against guns and stormy seas. Dangerous 'immigrant' rhetoric follows them too. There is, indeed, a wide perception that refugees are coming to, oh, steal our jobs, perhaps?

US press branded 'cowards' after British journalists' cutting questions to Trump and May 

But most refugees just don't want to be killed by a bomb. Instead, they want to come somewhere safe and start anew.

Despite the harshest of realities, most refugees go on to contribute to society - and some even achieve truly marvellous things. Here are some refugees (many of whom are still around) who you'll probably recognise.

The singer, model and TV star was born to Albanian parents in Yugoslavia (now present-day Kosovo). When Yugoslavia was disintegrated, ethnic Albanians faced persecution. Ora was a young child when her family moved here.

Pop star M.I.A was born in London, but then, aged one, moved with her family back to Sri Lanka, where her father campaigned for ethnic Tamils. Civil war forced her family to India, before they returned to London.

Iman was the world's first black supermodel. She went to a boarding school in Egypt, but is originally from Somalia and had to leave with her family indefinitely when there was a government coup.

Berahino was forced to flee his native Burundi as a child. The West Brom striker received political asylum in Birmingham. He credits football with helping him integrate into British society.

Moses, the Chelsea and Nigeria winger, was the son of a Christian pastor. His parents were killed when he was 11, so his wider family paid for him to come to the UK as an asylum seeker. He went to school in South London was scouted by Crystal Palace.

The painter was born in Berlin to Jewish parents. Together, they had to escape the rise of Nazism, and settled in London in 1933. He's the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the elder brother of Clement Freud, and uncle of Emma and Matthew Freud.

Colin the Caterpillar cake gets special makeover - but the price is obscene

You might not know this man, but you'll know the shop he helped to build. Yes, Michael Marks was one of the founders of Marks and Spencer. He was a Russian refugee. As a Jew, Marks moved to Leeds in 1882 to escape danger. I'm wearing a pair of his socks.

As above, Burton is not really a huge celebrity, but you might be wearing a t-shirt from the retailer Burton? Burton was a Lithuanian Jew who had to come to Britain in 1990 to escape the Russian Pogroms (huge, targeted rioting in which Jews were attacked).

Do you like the Mini motorcar? It's probably one of our best eccentricities. Sir Alec Issigonis designed it. The Greek-German came to the UK with his mother in 1923, escaping the Greco-Turkish war.

Mika was born in Beirut to American parents, who were themselves born to Lebanese and Israeli parents. Mika and his family left Lebanon for Paris due to war. He was one at the time. Today, he lives in London.

The Haitian rapper and actor left Haiti at the age of nine with his parents. He settled in the US.

Djalili and his family are Iranian refugees of the Baha'i faith. The actor, writer and comedian often focuses on topics of race and culture.

The Oscar-winning British American actress is the daughter of Jewish refugees. She's appeared in some of the most popular films of recent times, and studied at Cambridge University.

The Labour politicians are the sons of a Belgian Jewish refugee.

The American talk show host and household name is the son of German refugees.

Jackie Chan was born in what was then British Hong Kong to Chinese parents who had fled the Chinese civil war. He later moved the US and became a Hollywood star.

These are just a handful of the list of a very long list of refugees who have achieved greatness, even when faced with hardships. See more here .


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 13, 2017 Friday 7:56 AM GMT 


Syrian refugee victims of torture 'not supported' after arriving in Britain


SECTION: UK


LENGTH: 864 words


Syrian torture survivors may not be receiving the specialist support they need after arriving in Britain as refugees, a report has warned.

More than half of Syrian refugees resettled in the UK are survivors of torture or violence during the country's civil war, the report by the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found.

But it said "only a few" torture victims had been referred to specialist organisations for assessment and rehabilitation and only about a quarter of those needing mental health services had access to them.  

More than 4,400 Syrians have been resettled in 175 council areas around the UK since ex-prime minister David Cameron's 2015 promise to take in 20,000 vulnerable people from camps in the region over the next five years.

But the charity Freedom from Torture said only a "handful" had been referred for treatment and its offer to assist on a bigger scale had "so far been overlooked by Government".

The charity backed the PAC's call for an urgent review to ensure victims of torture are identified and supported.

PAC chair Meg Hillier said: "It is critical that such people receive specialist support.

"Our committee has previously highlighted the shortcomings in access to mental health services and we call on the Government to ensure a plan is in place to properly support refugees in need of them."

The report said the Government was making "encouraging progress" towards the 20,000 target. But meeting it in full would be a "significant challenge" and Government procedures for evaluating progress were "too vague".

Sufficient offers have already been received from local authorities across the UK to house all 20,000 of the expected arrivals.

But there was "confusion" about the full extent of support they were expected to provide, and some councils fear that the funding of £8,250 per refugee in the first year - declining the longer they are in the UK - will not be enough to cover the services they need.

Failure to provide clarity on these issues "risks the successful delivery of the programme", the report warned.

There have been warnings that the four hours of English language tuition the Syrians receive weekly during their first year "is not enough for them to properly integrate into or communicate with their local communities", and it was "not clear" whether an extra £10 million announced for classes will be enough, said the PAC.

The report said the decision to offer Syrians "humanitarian protection" rather than refugee status was preventing them from claiming some disability benefits and student finance or travelling abroad.

Some were suffering "undue stress" because of uncertainty over what would happen to them when the programme ended.

Ms Hillier said more work was needed to make the resettlement programme "sustainable in the longer-term".

The Government should set out "detailed plans" now or risk failing the refugees and undermining public support for the programme, she said, adding: "T here is a long way to go."

Lucy Gregg, senior policy adviser at Freedom From Torture - the only organisation dedicated to the treatment of torture survivors in the UK - said there were "serious gaps" in the process for identifying torture victims among Syrians arriving in the UK.

"Early identification of torture survivors and the provision of specialist clinical services are absolutely vital in ensuring that those being resettled can integrate into their host communities and are crucial to the long-term success of the programme," she said.

Immigration minister Robert Goodwill said the Government was "on target" to resettle 20,000 people.

"We have secured all the local authority pledges to reach our commitment, but the hard work across Government involving the devolved administrations and local authorities will continue until we have turned all of these pledges into firm offers," said Mr Goodwill.

"We are providing substantial financial support to help local authorities provide vulnerable refugees with a safe environment and a chance to build their lives."

 Refugee Council director of advocacy Lisa Doyle said the resettlement target was "more than achievable".

"What's needed now is an acknowledgement that the global refugee crisis isn't going away any time soon and that a longer-term strategy for refugee resettlement is needed which clearly outlines roles, responsibilities, resources and an ambitious plan for welcoming refugees beyond 2020," she said.

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said: " Local authorities that have done the right thing by taking in refugees must be given sufficient funding and guidance, so they can help new arrivals integrate and build a new life.

"It is deeply worrying that vulnerable people who have experienced torture are not receiving the support they need.

"Unless the Government addresses clear problems with the resettlement programme, its already paltry target of 20,000 over five years risks not being met.

"Theresa May's scrapping of the Minister for Refugees, who oversaw the implementation of the 20,000 target, was a major step backwards. The Government must reclaim the lead on this issue and not simply palm off responsibility on local authorities."


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Sky News


February 16, 2017 Thursday 06:43 AM GMT 


'Act humanely': Children's commissioners urge Dubs refugee rethink


BYLINE: Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent


SECTION: TOP STORIES


LENGTH: 543 words



HIGHLIGHT: The UK's children's commissioners have urged ministers to overturn the controversial decision to end a scheme bringing child refugees to Britain.


In a letter to Home Secretary Amber Rudd, the commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland claim the axing of the so-called "Dubs scheme" puts children at risk of exploitation and trafficking. 

Their move follows protests from MPs, the Archbishop of Canterbury, other church leaders and high-profile celebrities against the decision to cut the child refugees taken in from 3,000 to 350.

The commissioners' letter comes 24 hours after an open letter from Benedict Cumberbatch, Gary Lineker, Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law and others.

The refugee scheme is named after Lord Dubs, a Czech-born refugee from Nazi Germany, after he successfully introduced an amendment to the Immigration Bill forcing the Government to act.

The announcement of the scheme being scrapped was slipped out last Wednesday in a written statement by immigration minister Robert Goodwill on the day of the big Commons vote on the Article 50 bill.

The commissioners are urging the Home Secretary to "consider carefully the plight of the many thousands of lone child refugees in Europe who are currently at risk of exploitation and trafficking".

They add: "The Government made a welcome commitment through the scheme to taking some of the most vulnerable lone child refugees who are rootless in Europe.

"We urge the Government to act humanely and responsibly, and to maintain a positive commitment to the Dubs scheme within a comprehensive strategy to safeguard unaccompanied child refugees within Europe."

:: Analysis - Will child refugees stop trying to reach the UK if Dubs is cancelled?

The letter is signed by Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, and Tam Baillie, Sally Holland and Koulla Yiasouma - her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Their intervention was strongly backed by Yvette Cooper, Labour MP and chairwoman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee, who has campaigned relentlessly on the refugee issue.

"This is a very serious response from the children's commissioners," she said.

"They make clear that far from avoiding traffickers, by ditching the Dubs scheme, the Government risks pushing more children back into the arms of smuggler gangs.

"The Government should listen to this call from the commissioners - whose very purpose is to protect the welfare of vulnerable children - and reopen the Dubs scheme now."

Defending the axing of the Dubs scheme, the Home Secretary said: "We're focused on helping the most vulnerable, so we focus on children from the region.

"We have the largest resettlement programme from the region - the Middle East and North Africa - of any European country, 3,000 children by 2020, 8,000 children we took last year."

A Home Office spokeswoman added: "Our commitment to resettle 350 unaccompanied children from Europe is just one way we are helping.

"We have a proud history of offering protection to those who need it and children will continue to arrive in the UK from around the world through our other resettlement schemes and asylum system."

PHOTO:

Link to Image

VIDEO:

Lord Dubs: 'We can't turn our backs on 90,000 children'

Lord Dubs, the architect of a scheme to allow unaccompanied child migrants from Europe into the UK, speaks to Sky's Adam Boulton.

Link to Video


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:18 PM GMT 


Theresa May refuses to condemn Donald Trump immigration ban;
Prime Minister says she was 'very pleased' to meet new President in Washington


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 519 words


Theresa May has refused to condemn Donald Trump's ban on refugees and entry for citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations after meeting with the Turkish President.

She was speaking just a day after meeting the new President in Washington , where the pair pledged their commitment to the "special relationship" between Britain and the US. 

After agreeing a controversial £100 million fighter jet deal amid wide-ranging purges and security crackdowns following an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ms May held a joint press conference with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

When May met Trump - five key points from the leaders' press conference

Their talks were overshadowed by global debate over Mr Trump's executive order to ban Syrian refugees from entering the US indefinitely, halt all other asylum admissions for 120 days and suspended travel visas for citizens of "countries of particular concern", including Syria, Iraq and other Muslim-majority nations.

Read more

Iraqi refugee targeted for helping US military detained at JFK airport

May agrees fighter jet deal with Erdogan despite human rights abuse

Most Isis victims Muslims despite Trump's plan for Christian refugees

Faisal Islam, the political editor of

Sky News

, asked Ms May whether she viewed it as an "action of the leader of the free world".

The Prime Minister replied that she was "very pleased" to have met Mr Trump in Washington, before evading the question by hailing Turkey's reception of millions of refugees and Britain's support for its government and other nations surrounding Syria.

Mr Yildirim was more direct, calling the crisis a global issue, saying the UN members "cannot turn a blind eye to this issue and settle it by constructing walls".

"Nobody leaves their homes for nothing, they came here to save their lives and our doors were open...and we would do it again," he added. "If there is someone in need, you need to give them a helping hand to make sure they survive."

Mr Trump has suspended all refugee admissions to the US for 120 days as part of measures he claimed would "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

His order additionally banned Syrian refugees indefinitely until "significant changes" are made, and halved the annual cap on refugees to 50,000.

The President'swide-ranging executive order also suspends travel visas for anyone from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Syria, Iraq, Libya and Iran,from entering the US for at least 90 days.

He claimed his administration needed time to develop more stringent screening processes for refugees, immigrants and visitors.

It provoked outcry from NGOs working to stem the worst ever global refugee crisis, with more than 65 million people forced to flee their homes.

Amnesty International warned the move could have "catastrophic consequences", saying some of the worst fears about a Trump presidency were already being realised.

Salil Shetty, the group's secretary general, said: "These men, women and children are the victims of the same terror President Trump claims he wants to fight against. The irony beggars belief."


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telegraph.co.uk


January 13, 2017 Friday 4:17 PM GMT 


Refugees and migrants are dying at gates of Europe as heavy snow hits the Balkans and Greece, UN warns


BYLINE: By Nick Squires


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 928 words


Refugees and migrants are dying of exposure as a result of the bitterly cold weather that has hit Greece and the Balkans, the United Nations warned on Friday. 

Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures have hit the region, bringing misery to refugees stuck in camps on the Aegean islands, migrants living rough in Serbia and others tramping through mountains and forests near the Turkish border.   

More than 60,000 refugees and migrants have been stuck in Greece since Balkan countries closed their borders last spring . Of those, 15,000 are stranded on five islands in the Aegean. 

The UN's refugee agency said there had been five deaths so far from the cold. Two Iraqi men, a Pakistani man and a young Somali woman died close to the Turkish border with Bulgaria, while a 20-year-old Afghan man died after crossing the Evros River on the Turkish border with Greece.

Migrants try to keep warm over a fire in a derelict brickyard in Subotica, Serbia. More than 1,000 migrants and refugees are sleeping rough in Serbia, where temperatures have dropped to minus 20 Celsius.Credit: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty 

"Children are particularly prone to respiratory illnesses at a time like this. It's about saving lives, not about red tape and keeping to bureaucratic arrangements," Sarah Crowe, from the UNHCR, said in Geneva. "The dire situation right now is Greece."

Heavy snow has fallen on tents and containers accommodating refugees and migrants on Aegean islands such as Lesbos, Chios and Samos, where asylum seekers have been stuck for nearly a year after a deal struck between the EU and Ankara last March. On Samos, about 1,000 people, including children, are living in unheated dormitories and tents. 

The Greek navy dispatched a warship to Lesbos this week to provide emergency accommodation for refugees. In Serbia, more than 1,000 migrants, including children, are sleeping rough in an abandoned warehouse in the capital, Belgrade. 

Some refugees and migrants have reported being beaten up by police in the Balkans, while others had items of clothing taken - leaving them even less equipped to deal with the biting cold. "These practices are simply unacceptable and must be stopped," said Cecile Pouilly of UNHCR.

The unusually cold weather in the Mediterranean and south-eastern Europe is being caused by a movement of cold air from Siberia which has reduced temperatures to five to 10 degrees Celsius lower than normal.

The United Nations Children's Fund, which provides humanitarian assistance, said that the bad weather has "increased the risks of outbreaks of influenza and acute respiratory infections, especially among children under five. "Thousands of migrants and refugees are trapped in freezing conditions in shelters that are ill-adapted for winter in Greece and the Balkans." 

Afghan migrants try to keep clean while living rough in Belgrade, Serbia, in temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius.Credit: Danilo Balducci/Rex

The European Commission has criticised conditions in which asylum-seekers are living on the Greek islands as "untenable." 

Rania Askar, 31, a Syrian refugee, gave birth in a camp in Greece but her baby died just hours later. "I didn't know that there was something wrong with my pregnancy until the day I woke up bleeding. I am so sad, my heart is broken," she told Associated Press, standing in an alleyway with her four-year-old daughter Maya.  "This wouldn't happen if I had a regular check-ups and was surrounded by my sisters in Germany," Mrs Askar said. "We are left alone here. We only have God."

The Greek authorities had failed to provide adequate winter accommodation for asylum seekers, said the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organisation. "While the Greek government has implemented some emergency measures this week, including a ship to host up to 300 refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, these can be considered short-term fixes. They are not an adequate long-term response," the IRC said.

Government-run shelters in Serbia are full to capacity and the people living in the abandoned warehouse in Belgrade were in dire straits.  "There are no services and they are at extraordinary risk of death by hypothermia," the IRC said.

Panos Navrozidis, its country director in Greece, said: "Close to 10 months since the EU-Turkey deal was implemented, there is no excuse for the overcrowding we are seeing on the Greek islands. Vulnerable refugees and refugees with legitimate family reunification and asylum claims must be moved to appropriate sites on the mainland."

Meanwhile, despite rough seas and freezing winter weather, migrants continue to try to cross the central Mediterranean from the coast of Libya in the hope of being rescued and brought to Italy. On Thursday around 800 migrants were rescued from six rubber dinghies by the Italian coast guard and two ships run by humanitarian groups.

Migrants warm themselves by a fire in a derelict building in Belgrade, Serbia.Credit: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty 

A record 181,000 migrants, most of them Africans, reached Italy last year. EU leaders have warned that even more may arrive this year.

Joseph Muscat, the prime minister of Malta, who will host an EU summit on migration on Feb 3, predicted a dramatic increase in crossings once better weather arrives. "Come next spring, we will have a crisis," he said, forecasting "unprecedented" numbers. He has called for the EU to try to forge a deal with Libya to stop the exodus, but Libya is split between two rival governments and lawlessness has enabled smuggling gangs to operate with impunity.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 25, 2017 Tuesday 5:34 PM GMT 


Two children among at least 16 refugees killed in boat disaster between Turkey and Greece;
Pregnant woman survives sinking amid record deaths in migrant boat crossings to Europe


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:1


LENGTH: 735 words


Two children are among at least 16 refugees who have drowned attempting to cross from Turkey to Greece.

The sole survivors of the disaster were two women - one of them pregnant - who said around 25 people had been loaded on to a smugglers' boat towards the island of Lesbos.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said a six-year-old boy was found dead in Greek waters, alongside six women and two men. 

Read more

Refugees face homelessness immediately getting asylum, report finds

Refugee death toll passes 1,000 in record 2017

Refugee children being raped and forced into prostitution in Greece

Seven more bodies, of six men and a child were found in Turkish waters by the coastguard following the sinking on Monday night.

A spokesperson said that the survivors, an eight-month pregnant woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and another woman from Cameroon, were "out of danger" following hospital treatment and would receive accommodation and support in Greece.

"The number of people crossing the Aegean to Greece has dropped drastically over the past year, but this tragic incident shows that the dangers and the risk of losing one's life remains very real," said Philippe Leclerc, a regional representative of the UNHCR.

Refugee crisis: Stranded refugees face deteriorating conditions in Greece camps

It was the second reported boat disaster in waters between Turkey and Greece this year, which has seen a record number of refugees die attempting the longer and more treacherous crossing from Libya to Italy.

It has become the dominant sea route to Europe after new regulations were imposed under the controversial EU-Turkey deal in March 2016, seeing anyone arriving on Greek islands detained under the threat of deportation.

Read more

Syrian asylum seeker 'hangs himself' in Greece

More than 62,000 asylum seekers have been stranded in Greece by the agreement and border closures throughout Europe, despite warnings over a "growing epidemic" of sexual violence and exploitation and suicide attempts in refugee camps.

Around 4,900 migrants have made the voyage this year, according to UNHCR data - an average of 20 a day - far down on the total of 173,000 for 2016.

Many of those already in Greek camps have been waiting for their asylum claims to be processed for up to a year while living in dire conditions under the threat of violent protests and attacks by right-wing groups.

A group of 12 Syrians of Kurdish origin started a hunger strike on Friday at the notorious Moria detention camp on the island of Lesbos.

The UNHCR said its staff were working to help resolve the situation amid concern for their health, with the strikers cutting out water on Sunday.

They are preparing a letter to Greek authorities demanding their claims be considered in line with international law and the 1951 Refugee Convention.

The worsening situation is driving migrants into the hands of smugglers in desperation to escape the country.

An Iranian man died near the north-eastern city of Xanthi on Monday night after a van carrying him and 13 other migrants crashed while being chased by police.

Police said the van's driver, a suspected smuggler from Moldova, had swerved past a motorway checkpoint and crashed on a rural road before being arrested.

Refugees have died in fires and of hypothermia and suffocation in Greek camps, where some are on hunger strike(AFP/

Getty

)

The migrants found inside, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran, are believed to have crossed from neighbouring Turkey over a river that separates the two countries.

Almost 1,100 asylum seekers have died in attempted sea journeys to Europe so far in 2017, while several more have been killed byhypothermia,suffocationor in accidents on land.

Despite the record deaths, humanitarian organisations carrying out search and rescue operations have been increasingly attacked for allegedly aiding smugglers, which they deny.

Sophie Beau, the co-founder of rescue charity SOS Mediterranee, said NGOs were being forced to act by the "failure of European states", who should be increasing rescue capacity themselves.

"NGOs are being blamed for our presence, when authorities should be blamed for their absence," she added.

"There's a humanitarian tragedy unfolding in front of our eyes at the door of Europe and we cannot just remain blind."

More than 44,000 migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Iraq, have arrived over the Mediterranean and Aegean seas this year.


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FinancialWire


May 8, 2017 Monday


More than one million children have fled escalating violence in South Sudan


LENGTH: 504 words


NEW YORK, United States of America -- More than one million children have now fled South Sudan where escalating conflict is ravaging the country, UNICEF and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced today. 



"The horrifying fact that nearly one in five children in South Sudan has been forced to flee their home illustrates how devastating this conflict has been for the country's most vulnerable," said Leila Pakkala, UNICEF's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa. "Add this to the more than one million children who are also displaced within South Sudan, and the future of a generation is truly on the brink."

Children make 62 per cent of more than 1.8 million refugees from South Sudan, according to the latest UN figures. Most have arrived in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

"No refugee crisis today worries me more than South Sudan," said Valentin Tapsoba, UNHCR's Africa Bureau Director. "That refugee children are becoming the defining face of this emergency is incredibly troubling. We, all in the humanitarian community, need most urgent, committed and sustainable support to be able to save their lives."

Inside South Sudan, more than one thousand children have been killed or injured since the conflict first erupted in 2013, while an estimated 1.14 million children have been internally displaced.

Nearly three quarters of the country's children are out of school -- the highest proportion of out-of-school children in the world.

The trauma, physical upheaval, fear and stress experienced by so many children account for just part of toll the crisis is exacting. Children remain at risk of recruitment by armed forces and groups and, with traditional social structures damaged, they are also increasingly vulnerable to violence, sexual abuse and exploitation.

More than 75,000 refugee children in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and DRC have crossed South Sudan's borders either unaccompanied or separated from their families.

Refugee families fleeing to neighbouring countries in search of shelter and safety are facing a double catastrophe this rainy season, with children most at risk from the health and protection risks associated with inadequate shelter. Much greater support is needed to ensure that every refugee family has somewhere safe to live, as well as urgent humanitarian assistance including food, water, protection, education and medical care.

UNICEF's appeal for South Sudan and South Sudanese refugees in the region - which calls for US$ 181 million to address the acute needs of refugees until the end of the year - is currently only 52 per cent funded.

UNHCR staff are at the frontline of the crisis, meeting South Sudanese refugees as they flee across borders and providing lifesaving assistance but chronic underfunding in 2017 is putting critical services at risk. The UNHCR funding appeal for South Sudan situation of US$ 781.8 million is only 11 per cent funded.

Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 26, 2017 Sunday 3:10 PM GMT 


Amber Rudd claims reports Government is not helping child refugees are 'fake news';
Home Secretary says they have settled thousands of children in the UK and the Dubs Amendment was only a 'one-off'


BYLINE: Caroline Mortimer


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:2


LENGTH: 521 words


Amber Ruddsaysreports that the Government are not taking inchild refugees were "fake news".

Earlier this month the Government announced it would take just 350 unaccompanied child refugees from Syria under the Dubs amendmentas councils said they had "capacity for around 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children until the end of this financial year". 

But in an interview with Robert Pestonthe Home Secretaryrejected a question about whether they would reinstate the scheme to help children in France and Syria,sayingthey had already settled 8,000 children in the UK last year.

"Ok just in your question it shows that unfortunately the 'fake news' is settling out there," she argued. "The fact is we took 8,000 children last year into this country and settled them. 3,000 arrived unaccompanied and illegally and have been settled here. These numbers are large".

Read more

Child refugees in France record desparate plea to Theresa May

Scheme to rehome child refugees was 'encouraging' people traffickers

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

She said they had said there would be a consultation with local authorities under the terms of the Dubs amendment but it was always going to be a "one-off" and rejected calls to reinstate it.

Ms Rudd reiterated her stance that she believed the scheme was a "pull factor" for traffickers to smuggle vulnerable children into the UK and said that it was important to focus on taking children from Syria rather than Europe where they are "safe".

She said: "Where are the most vulnerable children? Are they in the region or are they in France, Italy and Greece?"

"They are in the region which is why we are focused on the region."

She also insisted that they were helping the children in the European camps because they had set up a £10m fund for them and accepted 900 children from the Calais camp "as a one-off" when it was closed last year.

But this is not enough as far as the architect of the scheme, Lord Alfred Dubs, is concerned.

Lord Dubs forced through the amendment to the Immigration Bill last year which meant the Government had to accept up to 4,000 child refugees under Section 67 of the act - so far only 200 have been accepted and they will be included in the final figure of 350.

He

told

The Independent

the end to the scheme was "bitter disappointing" and would continue to fight for the rights of child refugees to come to the UK.

Read more

May given 50,000-strong petition condemning end of refugee scheme

The peer, who was himself a child refugee who fled the Nazis,described the announcement in the House of Commons by Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill "sandwiched between PMQs and all these votes on Brexit" as "confusing" and "hidden".

He said: "Up to lunchtime [on Wednesday] I was under the impression there was no cap".

"[The government] recently said they would accept the letter and spirit of the amendment but they are manifestly not doing that.

"I think they're using it as an excuse that local authorities don't want to step up to the mark, and I think it is quite clear from the evidence that we have that local authorities would respond if asked."


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Chaos at JFK: Protesters descend on airport after 12 travelers are held overnight in confusion at Trump immigration ban - and only TWO have been released so far 


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1852 words



Demonstrators held a massive protest at New York City's JFK airport throughout Saturday after 12 refugees were detained following Donald Trump's immigration ban.

The group was held after flying to the United States following the president's executive order, banning all refugees and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. 

One of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America. 

The 53-year-old walked free from detention on Saturday afternoon after arriving in America on a flight from Istanbul the night before. The second detainee, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was released around 7 pm Saturday after 24 hours. 

Scroll down for video 

Ten people are still being detained. Alshawi - who was approved for a visa on January 11 - was flying to America to join his wife and son in Texas.

'I'm sleepy and tired and exhausted,' he told the  New York Post after being released.

Cabs at the airport went on strike for an hour from 6 pm to 7 pm to protest against the ban.

Travelers reported that police stopped allowing people without plane tickets onto the Air Train, which goes to the airport terminals, during the evening.  

Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, ordered authorities to let protesters onto the Air Train, saying in a statement relayed by ABC that 'one of the fundamental rights that is granted to the people of this country is the right to peacefully protest'.

 A sea of protesters gathered outside JFK's Terminal 4 as hundreds of demonstrators remained at the airport Saturday night.

Earlier on Saturday, Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release, as a crowd of supporters cheered him on. 

'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside the airport.

'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom... America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.' 

Asked what he thought of Trump he said: 'I don't know. He's a president, I'm a normal person.' 

He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America. 

WHO EXACTLY IS BANNED FROM THE U.S? 

Any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen is now barred from entering the United States.

That covers legal permanent residents - green card holders - and visa-holders from those seven countries who were out of the United States after Friday, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the temporary ban. They cannot return to the U.S. for 90 days.

There's an exemption for immigrants and legal permanent residents whose entry is in the U.S. national interest, but it's unclear how that exemption will be applied.

Visa and green card holders already in the U.S. will be allowed to stay.

Customs and Border Protection is notifying airlines about passengers whose visas have been canceled or legal residents scheduled to fly back to the U.S. Airlines are being told to keep them off those flights.

Source: Associated Press 

Lawyers for Darweesh and another Iraqi who is still detained at JFK filed a lawsuit on Saturday morning in a bid to have them released. 

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them on Friday night and took their passports when they landed in New York.

Meanwhile, Cairo airport officials said seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world. 

It is not clear exactly how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4:30 pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It comes as Iran's foreign ministry suggested the country would limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation for Trump's suspension of immigration and visas.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday that said Iran will resort to 'counteraction' to Trump's executive order.

'Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals,' the statement read. 

'It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions.'

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the U.S. embassy. 

SYRIAN REFUGEE'S DREAM OF MOVING TO U.S. SHATTERED:

Syrian refugee Ammar Sawan took his first step toward resettlement in the United States three months ago by submitting to an initial round of security screenings.

But his dreams of a better life were crushed when President Donald Trump enforced an indefinite ban on Friday on displaced Syrians entering the United States.

Sawan, who is a Syrian refugee living in Amman, Jordan with his family, revealed on Saturday that he learned of Trump's decision from TV news the night before.

'When we heard of the order, it was like a bolt of lightning, and all our hopes and dreams vanished,' the 40 year-old said.

The upholsterer, who supports his family with odd jobs in Amman, said he was especially disappointed for his four children who he had hoped would get a good education in the U.S.

He and other Syrian refugees in Amman bristled at the idea that they posed a potential security threat, saying they were both shocked and saddened by Trump's ban.

'We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision,' said 37-year-old refugee Mayada Sheik. 'We are not going out to harm people of other countries.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said. 

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order,  Bloomberg reports. 

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.' 


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BBC Monitoring Africa - Political
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May 19, 2017 Friday


UN says Uganda successful model of refugee integration


LENGTH: 625 words


Text of report in English by Ugandan privately-owned Chimp Reports news website on 19 May

The United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Uganda, Rosa Malango, has commended Uganda's approach towards refugee integration which she says is a step in the right direction in eliminating the incidence of violent extremism and its consequent impacts.

Malango said that unlike other countries, refugees in Uganda are better positioned to improve their socio-economic livelihood as a result of government's favourable policies. 

Countries like neighbouring Kenya have faced numerous terror attacks linked to Somali based terrorist group Al Shabab which are believed to be facilitated by radicalisation of Somalis seeking refuge in Kenya.

In 2015, the Kenyan government took a deliberate effort to close down Dadaab camp, the largest refugee settlement in Africa due to reasons relating to security.

Asked whether Uganda which currently hosts over 1.2 million refugees is not likely to face a similar security threat, Malango told ChimpReports that; "What I see in Uganda is a successful model which doesn't only give dignity to refugees but enhances national security."

"Because the refugees are able to get education, get a job and an Identity Card, they don't need to go underground. They actually can operate openly with the communities," Malango said in an interview earlier this week.

She added that it is for the easy accessibility of social services and economic interests that refugees in Uganda will strive to safeguard the country more than anything else. "They will protect alongside Ugandans the community that is giving them dignity and a safe haven."

Beyond what Uganda is doing, the UN's regional strategy for Africa which aims at preventing violent extremism emphasises empowerment of communities through creation of employment for the youths.

The strategy follows a UN study conducted across Africa which indicated that since the year 2000, up to 5,745 extremist linked terror attacks have been carried out. A total of 30,000 lives have been lost and 10,000 wounded.

States have been found to be responsible for pushing young people to extremist activities, the study further indicates. More than half (57%) of those that have been previously involved in such activities were introduced at the age of 18 and 68% were introduced by family and friends.

"We are working with cultural leaders to reach out to communities and influence income generating activities. If some you have a good job and can take care of your family, you are less likely to pursue violence," Malango told ChimpReports.

She revealed that UN is supporting government to come up with a National Preventing Violent Extremism strategy which will stipulate the objectives and roles of the different stakeholders.

"Then we can proceed to assess the commonalities within the East African region since there's easy movement of people across the borders. This will help ensure the Ugandan strategy makes sense in Kenya or DRC," she added.

Uganda is set to host the Solidarity Summit on Refugees, co-chaired by President Yoweri Museveni and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres between on June 22 and 23. This comes at a time when the country has receive international credit for trail blazing in the area of refugee resettlement.

According to Malango, the June summit is an opportunity for the rest of the world to benchmark on the achievements of Uganda since it received the first batch of refugees after World War 1.

"If the international community attends the Summit as we expect them to, and they support the already existing efforts, we will be able to sustain and increase the quality of services being given to refugees in Uganda," she said.

Source: Chimp Reports in English on 19 May 17


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BBC Monitoring South Asia - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


May 12, 2017 Friday


Deal signed to document unregistered Afghans in Pakistan


LENGTH: 545 words


Text of report in English by leading English-language Pakistani daily Dawn website on 12 May

The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on Thursday decided to begin documentation of illegal Afghan nationals in what is termed as a 'carrot-and-stick policy' for illegal Afghan nationals. 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Federal Minister for SAFRON Lt Gen (retired) Abdul Qadir Baloch and Chairman Nadra Usman Mobeen asking illegal Afghan nationals to get themselves registered.

Under the MoU, Nadra will establish more than 50 registration centres to register illegal Afghan nationals living in Pakistan.

Each centre will be manned by an official from the Afghan government who will be tasked with verifying the Afghan nationals for documentation.

Responding to a question about why illegal Afghan nationals would offer themselves up to be identified by the administration, Baloch said the police would chase and harass those who lack documentation.

"There is an offer for the Afghan nationals in the deal... This is a carrot-and-stick approach. If Afghan nationals get themselves registered, they will not be harassed by police," Abdul Qadir Baloch told DawnNews, adding that the undocumented would be haunted by the police.

Baloch said there are around 1 million Afghan nationals living without documentation in Pakistan and the issue has been raised with the Afghan government.

"The Afghan government has been taken on board before starting documentation of the illegal Afghan nationals in Pakistan. This is why Afghan government will provide us with an official for each centre to verify the illegal immigrants," he said.

In a damning report on the "forced returns" of Afghan refugees, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Pakistani government to avoid recreating conditions in 2017 that coerced the involuntary return of refugees to Afghanistan in 2016.

In its report titled "Pakistan Coercion, UN Complicity: The Mass Forced Return of Afghan Refugees", the HRW held the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) complicit in the "coerced return" of Afghan refugees, and called on it to "speak out as necessary and challenge any repeat in 2017 of the appalling and unlawful pressure Pakistan placed on Afghans in 2016, that coerced many to return to danger and destitution in Afghanistan in such massive numbers."

According to the report, Pakistan has hosted over a million Afghan refugees for most of the last 40 years.

In the second half of 2016, 365,000 of the 1.5 million registered refugees were "pushed out by a toxic combination of deportation threats and police abuses."

About 200,000 of the 1m undocumented Afghan refugees in Pakistan returned to their country over the same period.

The HRW terms the exodus "the world's largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times."

The consequences of the National Action Plan for Afghan refugees included a wave of police abuse, such as the unlawful use of force, arbitrary arrests and detentions, extortion and demolition of houses.

However, Afghans interviewed by the HRW said that police abuses had decreased significantly during the last few months of 2015.

Source: Dawn website in English 12 May 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 14, 2017 Friday 5:30 PM GMT 


Trail of misery: Following child refugees through the streets of Paris;
Much of the attention given to France's refugee crisis has focused on coastal camps. But The Independent found conditions were just as bad, and prospects just as bleak, for children fleeing persecution and abusein the capital


BYLINE: Matt Broomfield


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 1778 words


Child refugees in Paris live in conditions "as bad as the Jungle", one teenage veteran of the Calais camp tells

The Independent

. But rather than being concentrated in one squalid location, frequent police raids mean hundreds of children are spread throughout a web of ramshackle camps, dangerous squats and unsanitary hostels in the French capital.

They are less visible, more isolatedand at the mercy of a bureaucracy thatoffers little or no protection as it demands often-impossible proof of age.

The Independent  

followed their route through the boulevards of the City of Light.

The bulldozing of the Jungle is not the only factor driving children to Paris. A canary-yellow processing centre, known locally as "the Bubble", hosts a rolling total of around 400 adult asylum-seekers in a sparse industrial area north of the city centre. According to Marion le Bloa, a front-line volunteer with aid organisation Utopia56, "when the Bubble was created, the number of unaccompanied minors went crazy - it doubled".

Scores of would-be and failed asylum applicants live nearby, in bedraggled, ad-hoc camps built of tarpaulin and cannibalised building materials. Omar, an Afghani 17-year-old who fled the Taliban aged just 14, tells

The Independent

he arrived on the previous night after stowing away on a train.

Blaze reduces Dunkirk migrant camp to ashes

"I was in a camp in Norway for nearly two years," says the softlyspoken, acne-flecked teen. "With only a bed, nothing else. There were fights every day.I heard Norway were giving negative [asylum decisions] to [almost] everyone from Afghanistan, so I left before the police came in the night."

Facing increasingly harsh treatment elsewhere in the continent, others have left Italy, Belgium or Eastern Europe. Around half of refugee children in Paris are trying to get to Britain: many speak English but no French, and have relatives working in the UK. Pierre Henry, the chief of major aid organisation France Terre d'Asile, says: "This is a problem for all European countries. We need to establish who is going to fund the determination process [and take] responsibility for these people."

A camp outside 'the Bubble', where refugees wait to be processed

Teenagers aren't actually allowed to stay in the Bubble - it's for single men only - and those who say they are not 18 are sent onward to face a battery of interrogation and bone tests, as the local government assesses their claims to be underage.

"They said you don't have any proof, and sent me outside," says newlyarrived Siddiq, 16, outside the shabby Red Cross centre where child refugees must file their applications. He stands in neutral position, arms loose by his side and evidently unsure of his next move. The majority of arrivals are turned away outright, or told to submit to weeks of investigation. "I am alone," Siddiq says. "Where will I go now? Sleep in the road?"

Siddiq

, 16, outside the Red Cross centre where child refugee applications are processed - and normally rejected

Another Afghani 17-year-old, Rahman, enters the security gate but is immediately driven back by a trio of bulky security guards wearing Mairie de Paris insignia. "I've been coming every day for a month," he says. "Everybody is angry to us here, the security are very hard. For my first two weeks in Paris, I was sleeping under a bridge. The security [just] told me I'd be thrown out of my hostel if I didn't leave."

Read more

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

European policy 'driving child refugees to attempt suicide'

Nearly 100 refugees missing after boat sinks off Libya

How we see refugees could be changed by 'subtle shifts' in language

African refugees sold at 'regular public slave auctions' in Libya

The centre has a reputation for harsh treatment of minors. The crucial bone tests are only accurate within "more or less two years", according to a radiologist's survey, rendering them effectively useless.

Marion of Utopia56 says many children are terrified of attending their interviews, while other volunteers claim translators misrepresent the stories of refugees as investigators aggressively pursue irrelevant details.

According to an activist named Sonia, "One boy said he was scared of being kidnapped by the Taliban... the translator said 'he wanted to be a terrorist'. It's directly the opposite."

A longer-term camp below a flyover near

Porte

de la

Chapelle

Nor are children always provided with adequate housing during this process. "We have to leave every day with all our bags and move all the time," Rahman says. "They only give us food once a day." Other refugees and activists describe hostels without blankets, but full of fleas and bedbugs.

And Rahman is one of the lucky ones. There is not always room in the hostels, which are also closed to children appealing their decisions. So "at least hundreds" of unaccompanied children live on the streets, according to volunteer Agathe, making it even harder to access a fair hearing.Seventeen-year-old Guy tells

The Independent

he fled the Ivory Coast, leaving behind his mother in a Libyan jail, only to miss a crucial assessment because he was sleeping in a building site without a mobile phone.

A spokesman for the Paris city authority which operates the 'Bubble' saidevery effort was made to protect vulnerable refugees,but added that determining whether or not they were under 18 could be "complex".

He admitted that in the past few daysmakeshift camps hadstarted to pop up around "the Bubble" because the state hadnot been quick enough to send people from the temporary centre to permanent structures around the country, and said the process was being speeded up.

"It is very rare that refugees and migrants travel without any form of documentation. Everything is put in place to ensure children are immediately taken care of,"the spokesman said.

"But there should be a distinction between those who are minors and those who say they are but are not. The refugee process is made much easier if someone can prove they are under 18.

"Sometimes refugees continue to claim they are minors even if they have been found to be over 18 and they deny an existing situation. This is a complex problem."

In the face of constant police

harassment,c

amps are transient and thinly spread across the city in metro stations, under flyovers and on the roadside.

"The people in Paris are nice;the police are not," says Omar, 16, a refugee from Darfur who spent a fortnight in the street.

Around 20 per cent of child rough sleepers have faced physical abuse from Paris police, and roughly 40 per cent have been hit with tear gas, according to the charity Refugee Rights.

Read more

Child refugees continue to be exploited as they try to reach safety

Aid organisations are forced to operate outside the law, with the police frequently closing down soup kitchens and distribution projects. Volunteer Catherine says: "We come at night with tents and blankets, we throw them out of apartment windows. It's crazy."

Outside Jaures metro station, a scrappy line of cardboard abuts an office window. Through the smoked glass, workers can be seen tapping away on computers, apparently oblivious to the armed police moving on a gaggle of Afghanis who have been sleeping there for several days. Most are adults, but among their number is 17-year-old Qaher, who has been in the streets for 20 days since launching an appeal. "We live like animals," he says. "We've eaten once in 24 hours. The cold and the rain is normal for us. We don't have anything."

The streets around la Chapelle metro station provide a vision of the future for children like Qaher, who cannot prove their age. Undocumented adult migrants sell fake iPhone cases and weed in cigarette boxes: armed police search a young man for drugs: a paraplegic with flip-flops on his hands drags himself onto the metro to beg for change.

Though 96 per cent of child refugees arrive in Paris unaccompanied, those coming with family members are at risk too. Speaking near la Chapelle, Nasrat says his brothers, aged 14 and 11, rely on him for support. But though Nasrat was a translator for the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, his asylum application has been rejected.

"I take them to school and bring them back, I cook for them," says the 26-year-old. "Somebody from my family needs to be with them. They are always crying about what they saw on the way here. Sometimes I lie to them, [saying] we will stay here no problem. I don't have any other way. If I don't lie they will cry."

For unaccompanied minors, the only real support is provided by overstretched networks of grass-root organisations and private individuals. "Most of the people on the street are supported by small groups of people, working together... the big organisations aren't doing nearly enough," says Cecelia of Solidarithé, an organisation distributing tea and vital information outside the Bubble.

Groups praised by child refugees themselves include Utopia56, support network BAAM, and a Facebook group offering direct phone credit top-ups to help refugees contact their families and attend vital appointments.

Individual volunteers have taken in scores of teenagers ignored or abandoned by the authorities to sleep and in their apartments. Fourteen-year-old David fled domestic abuse in Guinea, and lost half his body-weight as he crossed the Sahara, filtering filthy drinking water through his shirt. "It was a little dangerous," he says quietly.

After two weeks on the street in Paris, he was taken in by Catherine, who is called "mama" by the half-a-dozen teens from Francophone Africa gathered in her small apartment. They play West African R&B, Mr Bean and the Marseillaise through her laptop.

Most move on to try their luck in other cities or countries when their applications are rejected or a hostel space opens up. Some have secured temporary 6-month leave to remain. All those still in Paris come back to Catherine for showers, hot meals and company. "I'm a single mom with two kids, I don't have a big house. If I can do it anyone can," says fellow volunteer host Avril.

This highly informal network cannot help everyone, though. "Sometimes I have to say 'there's no room,'" says hosting coordinator Sonia, who turned away a 15-year-old only yesterday. Only one child spoken to by

The Independent

has managed to access the French education system.

As the police come closer, Qaher and the other Afghan refugees outside Jaures metro station gather together their few belongings. "We're not allowed here any more," he explains. "We have to go." Then he trudges off into the drizzle, doubled over below his rucksack and blanket.

Names have been changed to protect the identities of child refugees


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mirror.co.uk


February 9, 2017 Thursday 12:41 PM GMT 


Home Secretary Amber Rudd accused of acting like Donald Trump as Tories slam door on lone child refugees;
The Government revealed revealed yesterday their commitment to take lone child refugees under the 'Dubs amendment' would end


BYLINE: By Mikey Smith


SECTION: NEWS,POLITICS


LENGTH: 716 words


Tory Amber Rudd insisted she's not taking lessons from Donald Trump today, after it was revealed the Government is to end its commitment to take in thousands of lone child refugees.

Labour's Pat McFadden said the decision risked aligning the Government with the US president's "America first" mantra.

SNP home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry also questioned whether the policy was the result of "cosying up" to Mr Trump. 

It follows a backlash over the announcement that just 350 children will be brought into the UK under the 'Dubs amendment'.

The number is barely a tenth of the 3,000 demanded by 84-year-old peer Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child.

Lord Dubs won a victory last year when he amended the Immigration Act, forcing Britain to accept unaccompanied child refugees who had already made the dangerous crossing to Europe.

The Tories have capped the number of lone child refugees being brought to Britain because ministers are afraid it would "encourage people traffickers".

And Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the amendment was only agreed to on the basis that it would not "act as a pull factor for children to Europe, and that it would be based on local authority capacity."

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she did not recognise the comparison, adding that Britain was not pulling up the drawbridge to vulnerable refugees.

Tories quietly end scheme bringing stranded child refugees to Britain after taking just 350

Mr Trump's travel order indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from entering the US, and suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days.

Former minister Mr McFadden said: "I want to ask her what signal she thinks this sends to the world in the wake of the announcement last week from President Trump, in a different context.

"There are always those who will say look after our own, charity begins at home, Britain first, America first, France first, and so on.

"Does she really want us to be aligned with that sentiment, or a different one?"

On Wednesday, the Government announced that 350 children will be brought to the UK under the Dubs Amendment - far fewer than the 3,000 originally expected.

Ms Rudd responded: "We are not saying we are closing the door, we are putting up the drawbridge. We are not saying that.

"I would urge him and honourable members across the whole House not to fall into the trap of suggesting that we are not a country that is welcoming of refugees, that is stepping up to our obligations, that is supporting with money and with refugee programmes, the most vulnerable.

"I do not recognise the comparison he is making, and I hope that other members will share in that position."

Ms Cherry said the Government's decision was "completely against the spirit" of the Dubs Amendment.

She added: "I understand the pull argument, but there are thousands of children already in Europe and many of these are unaccompanied and vulnerable.

Trump says Muslim ban "is one of my most popular policies yet" as poll shows majority public support

"Lord Alfred Dubs has described what was done yesterday as shabby and deceitful.

"It seems the Government tried to sneak out what they knew would be a very unpopular announcement, when they were busy avoiding scrutiny in this House about the Brexit deal.

"Is this the shape of things to come? And is this what comes of cosying up to President Trump?"

After the debate, Labour's Yvette Cooper said: "The Home Secretary's response today was completely inadequate. Far from deterring traffickers, this decision to halt legal routes to sanctuary will encourage traffickers instead.

"By closing both the Dubs scheme and the fast track Dublin scheme for child refugees with family in Britain, at the same time as the French are closing some of their support, the Government is pushing vulnerable children back into the arms of smuggler and trafficker gangs, and back into modern slavery.

"Already we are seeing hundreds of children starting to return to Dunkirk and Calais. Both France and Britain have an obligation to work together to make sure the dangerous Calais camp conditions don't start all over again.

"The Prime Minister said last week that "on refugees this Government has a proud record.... and long may it continue." It's time Ministers lived up to that and continued this important support for child refugees now."


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MailOnline


January 26, 2017 Thursday 2:12 AM GMT 


Trump is set to INDEFINITELY block Syrian refugees coming to the US and create 'safe zones' inside the war-torn country as part of immigration crackdown 


BYLINE: CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM, ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM, REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 2167 words



Donald Trump intends to stop admitting refugees from Syria indefinitely while setting up 'safe zones' in the warn-torn country, a draft executive order showed Wednesday.

The document shed more light on the president's expected decisions regarding immigration. 

Trump could also impose a four-month ban on all refugees, expedite a biometric system tracking exits and entries of all visitors to the United States, and require in-person interviews for all those applying for non-immigrant visas.

The president rolled out his first executive actions on immigration Wednesday with an order to start building his wall along the border with Mexico, and another cutting federal funding for sanctuary cities.

Scroll down for video 

The draft executive order showed Wednesday that Trump intends to stop accepting Syrian refugees and suspend the United States' broader refugee program for 120 days.

Trump is expected to sign the order this week. It was not clear if the draft will be revised before then.

The mogul also plans to suspend issuing visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen for at least 30 days, according to the draft. All are predominantly Muslim countries. 

While suspending visas for Syrians, Trump is directing the Pentagon and the State Department to 'produce a plan' for safe zones in Syria and the surrounding area within 90 days, but includes no details.

Safe zones, proposed by both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton during the campaign, were considered by the Obama administration years ago and ruled out because of the resources required to implement them. Those challenges have only grown since Russia's military intervention, in which Moscow introduced advanced air defense systems into Syria.

That means US personnel could potentially end up in direct military confrontation with the Russians or with Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces if the US tried to prevent Assad's warplanes from operating in the zones.

Trump's draft shows that he will order Homeland Security and State Department officials, along with the director of national intelligence, to review what information the government needs to fully vet would-be visitors and come up with a list of countries that don't provide it.

The order says the government will give countries 60 days to start providing the information or citizens from those countries will be barred from traveling to the United States.

Exceptions would be made for diplomats, NATO visas or those people traveling to work at the United Nations.

DONALD TRUMP'S DRAFT ORDER 

A draft order shed more light Wednesday on Donald Trump's expected moves on immigration.

The president is expected to:


Trump, according to his yet-to-be-signed executive order, will cut that program by more half to 50,000. The order said while the program is suspended, the US may admit people on a case-by-case basis 'when in the national interest' and the government would continue to process refugee requests from people claiming religious persecution, 'provided that the religion....is a minority religion in the individual's country.' That suggests that would allow the admission of Christians from Muslim-majority countries.

Trump has the authority to determine how many refugees are accepted annually and he can suspend the program at any time. Refugee processing was suspended in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, restarting months later.

During the last budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria and President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

The order says its purpose is to make sure anyone allowed to enter the United States doesn't 'bear hostile attitudes toward our country and its founding principles.'

'We cannot, and should not, admit into our country those who do not support the U.S. Constitution, or those who place violent religious edicts over American law,' Trump said in the order. He added that the U.S. should bar foreigners who 'engage in acts of bigotry and hatred,' citing honor killings or other violence against women and religious persecution.

There is no religious test to enter the United States and the Immigration Act of 1990 all but eliminated the government's ability to exclude would-be immigrants on ideological grounds. But it does allow the government to block someone from the country if their 'entry or proposed activities in the United States....would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.' 

The president also wants to expedite the implementation of a biometric system tracking entries and exits for all visitors to the US, according to a full draft obtained by the  Huffington Post. 

Trump also intends to require in-person interviews for all non-immigrant visa applicants. Previously, waivers could be granted to skip the interview. 

His order also asks the Secretary Of State to review reciprocity agreements for non-immigrant visas, to check that they are 'truly reciprocal'.

Nonimmigrant visa applicants from certain countries sometimes have to pay a fee for the issuance of their visa. If a foreign government asks US citizens to pay a fee for a certain type of visa, then the US will ask citizens of that country to pay a reciprocal fee for similar visas.  

The president posted a tweet on Tuesday evening signaling that major announcements were in the offing.

'Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow,' Trump tweeted. 'Among many other things, we will build the wall!' 

It remained unclear whether the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) - which has shielded illegal immigrant children from deportation by granting them work permits - would be axed. A White House official told the Washington Post Trump's advisers and associates had different views on the matter. 

RECORD NUMBER OF MUSLIM REFUGEES FLED TO THE US IN 2016

The US government permitted 38,901 Muslim refugees to enter the country in 2016, nearly half of the total number of refugees it permitted into its borders, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

The figure represents the highest number of Muslim refugees that have been permitted into the US since data on religious affiliation became publicly available in 2002.

It followed increasing escalation in Syria's bloody civil war, as well as continued instability in Iraq and Afghanistan and the collapse of Libya's government. 

The US allowed nearly the same number of Christians into the country - 37,521.

Fiscal 2016, which ended on September 30, was the first time in 10 years that the US admitted more Muslims than Christians.

The majority of the Muslim refugees who entered the US last year were from Syria (12,486) and Somalia (9,012).

The rest came from Iraq (7,853), Burma (3,145) - where Muslims are harshly discriminated against - Afghanistan (2,664), and other countries.

The Obama administration aimed to absorb 10,000 Syrian refugees. Instead, it exceeded the goal by 2,486. 

SYRIA 

From the outside looking in, Syria appears to be a hornet's nest of terrorist groups and non-state actors.

A number of these organizations have been fighting the forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in a bloody civil war that has cost the lives of an estimated 500,000 people.

They include Islamic State (ISIS), a jihadist group that has also captured swaths of Iraq; Al-Nusra Front, which is also known as Al-Qaeda in Syria; and Jaysh al-Islam, among others, according to Globalo.

Since 1979, the Syrian government has been put on the State Department's list as a state sponsor of terrorism.

It is also known for its support of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah.

IRAQ 

Iraq has been unstable ever since the 2003 invasion of the country by US forces.

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein paved the way for Shi'ite-led governments to take over, though they have failed to bring order to the country.

Organizations like Islamic State, made up primarily of Sunni gunmen, have filled the vacuum and prevented an orderly post-Saddam transition from taking hold.

ISIS has launched dozens of terrorist attacks that have killed thousands. 

IRAN 

Iran has been designated by the State Department as 'the foremost sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world,' according to CNN.

The US says that Iran has given weapons and cash to organizations like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraqi Shi'ite groups, including Kata'ib Hizballah.

Both organizations are designated as terrorist groups by the State Department. 

LIBYA 

Libya, the North African nation, has been a powder keg in which terrorist organizations have been fighting for control of the country since the NATO-backed ouster of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The US intelligence community says that jihadist organizations have been strengthening their grip on the country, according to The Washington Times.

ISIS has been particularly active there.

'There are, in addition to ISIL, probably six or eight other terrorist groups that have gathered in Libya,' James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, told Congress in 2015.

'So it's a magnet because, essentially, it's ungoverned.'  

SOMALIA 

Somalia is widely regarded as a failed state.

It was ranked as the most fragile country in the world by the Fund for Peace in 2016.

Without a functioning central government, the East African country has disintegrated further into civil war.

Its UN-backed government has been at war with Al-Shabab, a group regarded by both the US and the United Kingdom as a terrorist organization, according to the BBC.

Al-Shabab is believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 gunmen from across the Muslim world.

The organization propagates the austere Wahabi version of Islam whose origins lie in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Shabab has imposed strict clerical rule in areas that it has captured in Somalia, where it has stoned women to death for the crime of adultery and amputated the hands of thieves.

SUDAN 

Sudan was placed on the State Department 's list of terrorism sponsors in 1993.

At the time, it was alleged that the government harbored figures like Osama bin Laden in addition to fighters from al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Nidal Organization, and Jamaat al-Islamiyya.

In the late 1990s, however, Sudan showed willingness to cooperate with the West in fighting terrorism.

In May 2004, Sudan was removed from a list of countries that were 'not fully cooperating' with American anti-terrorism efforts.

However, the Sudanese government remains on the terror sponsor list due to its support of Hamas, the Palestinian group fighting Israel. 

YEMEN

Yemen, one of the most impoverished Arab countries, has been in the grip of a civil war fought between forces loyal to the established government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, according to the BBC.

The Houthis are a Shi'ite political movement that took control of the Yemenite capital in 2014.

Since then, regional forces backed by Sunni governments have tried to roll back their progress, while Shi'ite actors like Iran and Hezbollah have given the Houthis support.

Nearly 7,000 people have died and 35,000 have been wounded since the war erupted in March 2015.

Most of the casualties have resulted from air strikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition - which has the backing of the US.

The country has been wracked by violence and chaos, with al Qaeda launching attacks and separatist movements having taken control of the southern part of the country. 


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The Guardian


January 24, 2017 Tuesday 12:33 AM GMT 


Thousands of refugee children sleeping rough in sub-zero Serbia, says UN;
Refugee facilities in Belgrade, where it is -15C, have been described as 'worse than the jungle in Calais' by aid workers


BYLINE: Nicola Slawson


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 878 words


Hundreds of new refugees and migrants, many of them children, are arriving in Serbia every day despite the prospect of sleeping rough in sub-zero temperatures and reports of violent treatment, Save the Children has said, as it calls on the EU to do more to help.

Related: Influx of refugees leaves Belgrade at risk of becoming 'new Calais' 

The EU-Turkey deal, which was supposed to stem the flow of refugees arriving in Europe by boat, has meant many refugees are being forced to take a deadlier land route to cross the Balkans, with children as young as eight experiencing harsh weather conditions, dog bites and violent treatment by police and smugglers.

Although Serbia is not part of the European Union, it borders Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and has become a transit point for those hoping to reach western Europe. About 6,000 people are stuck in Serbia not able to cross the border into Hungary, which is the direction of travel most would like to take.

Serbia does have asylum centres but when space becomes available, many migrants and refugees are too anxious to go to them, fearing that they will be detained indefinitely or deported illegally. Many of them are turning to smugglers for help instead, charities claim.

In the past two months, Save the Children estimates that 1,600 cases of illegal push-backs from Hungary and Croatia have been alleged by refugees and migrants, who have been forced - often violently - back into Serbia, despite already having crossed its border.

The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) confirmed in its weekly briefing that it was continuing to receive hundreds of reports of foreign nationals being expelled from EU countries in the Balkans and sent back to Serbia.

An average of 30 cases a day of "unlawful and clandestine push-backs" highlights a disregard for the human right to an individual assessment of the need for international protection, according to Save the Children.

Belgrade "risks becoming a dumping zone, a new Calais where people are stranded and stuck" the humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières has warned.

The conditions in the city, where 2,000 people are sleeping rough in an abandoned warehouse outside Belgrade train station, have been described as "horrific and unimaginable".

Gemma Parkin, a spokeswoman for Save the Children who has just returned from Serbia, said: "It's worse than anything that I've ever seen while working on the refugee crisis in the last few years. It is worse than the jungle in Calais and I thought that was the worst humanitarian crisis that you could envisage inside Europe or at least on the borders but this is really shocking.

"At night it was -15 and in the day -12. It was unimaginably cold because of a huge snow storm that hit the whole of the Balkans. You're ankle deep in snow and you see people wearing trainers that have got holes in them with their toes sticking out.

"You've got children as young as eight-years-old completely alone sleeping in this abandoned warehouse with no beds, no windows, no heating. The way they are keeping warm is by burning rubbish so toxic fumes are filling the whole place."

Parkin told the story a 12-year-old from Afghanistan who is trying to reach relatives in Germany but has been stuck in the Belgrade warehouse for three months. The boy had told him: "During the trip I had many problems, especially in the woods. The Bulgarian police beat us, took our money, asked us why we came to Europe. We also had problems with the Mafia."

Parkin said: "These lone children as young as 12 are in these horrific and unimaginable conditions and are more willing to put their faith in the hands of smugglers rather than any EU-wide system that should have been set up for the refugee crisis."

Parkin witnessed one Iraqi family, arriving at Miksaliste in the early morning, who had crossed the mountains on the Bulgarian border in the snow the previous night, with their children. Their eight-year-old daughter was very distressed and had to be carried most of the way and the mother needed urgent medical attention on arrival.

They told her they had fled Iraq when their house was bombed and the children could no longer attend school because of Islamic State

Parkin said: "Most of the people Save the Children speaks to are fleeing conflict or persecution and so would have the right to claim asylum," she said. "But they don't feel like they have the opportunity to have their case heard."

Save the Children estimates that there are up to 100 refugees and migrants arriving in Serbia every day and is supporting the government to refurbish safe spaces and support services prioritising lone children. About 46% of refugee and migrant arrivals in Serbia are children and 20% are unaccompanied.

The UNHCR said at least five refugees had died of cold since the start of the year. "Saving lives must be a priority and we urge state authorities across Europe to do more to assist and protect refugees and migrants," a UNHCR spokeswoman, Cecile Pouilly, told a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.

This week, the Serbian authorities made additional temporary space available to get people off the snowy streets and into shelters. The charities have warned, however, that it still far from enough to meet the needs of people who are sleeping rough.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 1, 2017 Saturday 2:04 PM GMT 


Attacks on refugee homes double in Austria as accommodation firebombed and sprayed with Nazi graffiti;
Interior ministry also records 49 attacks or threats made by asylum seekers in 2016


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:4


LENGTH: 844 words


Attacks on refugee accommodation have doubled in Austria, seeing homes firebombed, vandals spray Nazi graffiti on walls and a man threaten to "get a gun and shoot the dogs".

The interior ministry revealed the figures at the request of an MP, who said the vast majority of cases were motivated by hatred and called for more to be done to catch the culprits.

Albert Steinhauser, an opposition Green party politician, said he was dismayed to find out that more than three quarters of the 49 recorded cases remain unsolved. 

Read more

Austria says it will double money offer to refugees who leave country

"The most important thing is for the interior ministry to take these incidents seriously and make every necessary effort to investigate," he told the Austria Press Agency.

Among the incidents was a firebombing that saw two Molotov cocktails launched at a refugee home in Himberg, Lower Austria, in November.

It was one of several reported arsons, including a fire in Rohrbach, Upper Austria, in June, whichdamaged one accommodation centre so badly it had to be evacuated and rebuilt.

Police said refugees were put at severe risk in Augustwhen assailants broke into a storage unit and cut a gas supply hose "to cause a leak" that went unnoticed for more than a week.

Austria puts refugees to work to boost economy

Authorities said the motivations of the perpetrators were unknown, but they could have caused poisoning or a gas explosion.

In May, a man approached a centre in the Alpine town of Imst and shouted threats at asylum seekers, saying he would "get a gun and shoot the dogs". He was later arrested.

The following month, a man falsely posing as a police officer entered a home in Fulpmes armed with a baton to carry out a supposed "inspection".

Other attacks involved fireworks, paintball guns and homemade Molotov cocktails, while others saw stones and other projectiles launched at windows.

Most incidents involved vandalism, including the smashing of windows and spraying of racist and Nazi graffiti, including swastikas, the phrase "Heil Hitler" and SS runes.

Activists believe many more incidents may have occurred in 2016 than the 49 officially recorded, compared to 25 in 2015.

The interior ministry also listed numerous attacks and threats by asylum seekers, including carers being threatened with "decapitation" gestures in Linz, where another refugee told his supervisor "I will kill you all".

Austrian citizens and asylum seekers march during a pro-refugee protest called 'Let them stay' in Vienna, Austria on November 26, 2016. (AFP/

Getty

Images)

At least two sexual assaults were recorded. In one attack in Bad Hall in June, a female supervisor was threatened with a smashed glass, pinned to a wall by the neck and assaulted until she managed to flee.

A female worker was repeatedly assaulted by a migrant in Poysdorf, attempting to kiss her, grabbing her breasts and leaving her with a bleeding lip on one occasion.

A female social worker was forcibly held in her office and prevented from making phone calls by three Afghan asylum seekers in Görtschach, who told police they terrorised her for five hours "because she was a woman and a 'bitch'".

"We have to look closely at what the causes are. We strongly suspect that trauma, experiences of war and extreme violence play a role," Mr Steinhauser said, calling for better psychiatric care.

In all but two of 49 violent incidents or threats against workers recorded at refugee homes the perpetrators were caught, the interior ministry said.

More than 130,000 people have applied for asylum in Austria since the start of the refugee crisis, with the country sitting on the route from the Greek islands into western Europe.

In neighbouring Germany, more than 900 attacks on refugee homes were recorded in 2016, with the arrival of more than onemillion asylum seekers driving a spike in political violence and hate speech.

Austria, where thefar-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has seats in Parliament and almost had its leader elected President last year, has been hardening its stance towards refugees this year.

The government is doubling the amount of money offered to asylum seekers who leave the country voluntarily, while announcing plans toincrease surveillance, ban the burqa and force refugees to sign an "integration contract" and work for benefits.

Christian Kern, the Austrian Chancellor, announced he would be seeking an exception from accepting more asylum seekers under EU quotas.

He argued that Austria had fulfilled itsobligation and taken in its "fair share", sending a letter to kick-start negotiations with the European Commission on Tuesday.

Fewer than 14,500 migrants have been relocated from overcrowded camps in Greece and Italy under a two-year plan that was supposed to see 160,000 people housed by September.

Thousands of refugees continue to make treacherous sea crossings to Europe, with more dying than ever before on the passage between North Africa and Italy.

More than 28,000 asylum seekers have arrived this year, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Iraq, with at least 905 dying in the attempt.


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The Herald (Glasgow)


February 10, 2017 Friday


A shameful, sly decision that betrays child refugees in peril


BYLINE: Barclay McBain


SECTION: Pg. 15


LENGTH: 1061 words


IN every corner of the globe I've seen them suffer. In the dense bush country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, I've watched them trudge wearily through the mud and downpours of the rainy season. In the high Hindu Kush mountain range of Afghanistan, I've encountered them standing shivering in sub-zero temperatures, barefoot in the snow. On the beaches of the Greek islands, I've witnessed them come ashore in the dark of night from flimsy rubber rafts, soaked, confused, exhausted and above all, afraid.

Many never finish their journey, falling instead by the wayside. There is no end to the number of ways they die: hunger, disease, drowning, shooting, bombing and sometimes at the cruel hands of those who seek to exploit their vulnerability.  

This is the world of the child refugee; a nightmarish world the UK promised it would help some children escape from. Instead, in a move scarcely less mercenary and cynical than the people traffickers who exploit refugees, Tory ministers this week betrayed these children.

Quietly and without the remotest hint of contrition, the UK Government announced it would end a scheme to help lone vulnerable child refugees less than a year after it was introduced. In all, "Great" Britain accepted just 350 children, barely one-tenth of the 3,000 requested by 84-year-old peer Lord Alfred "Alf " Dubs, who was saved from Nazi persecution after fleeing on the Kindertransport programme before the Second World War.

It was Lord Dubs who, in an amendment to immigration legislation introduced last May, helped create the scheme through which it was hoped these 3,000 children would find sanctuary in the UK in the wake of the European refugee crisis.

This week he could only watch from the political sidelines as the UK Government reneged on its promise. Announcing the end of the Dubs scheme, immigration minister Robert Goodwill insisted the UK could be "proud" of its efforts helping refugees. While this might have had some truth in the past, at present it has a hollow ring. This was a decision that was, cold, calculated and carried out, probably deliberately, while most eyes were focused on the Brexit debacle.

In its execution it carried with it the political duplicity and double standards that have become the hallmarks of Prime Minister Theresa May's Government. This is a government that sells arms to the Saudis who bomb Yemeni civilians but that talks of "British" values and upholding human rights.

It's a government that, in the name of maintaining a "special relationship", insists on cosying up to the most dangerous and divisive US president in living memory, a man who has made it his personal mission to build walls and close refugee programmes.

We saw in the UK decision what one commentator rightly called "British Trumpism". In a world whose moral compass seems to have gone haywire, more than ever we need to do what it takes to help those who find themselves displaced by conflict, famine and persecution.

If refugee children, often alone and always vulnerable, are not fully deserving of this, then we have no right to speak meaningfully of "values". More than half of the world's refugees are children. We cannot and should not turn our back on this appalling fact. All around us, their plight is inescapable.

Barely days before efforts were made to keep the UK's decision on the Dubs scheme away from the headlines, another story in Spain barely had a mention. It concerned the fate of a little boy who was washed up on a Spanish beach near Cadiz. No one is quite sure of his identity but some reports suggest his name was Samuel, he was six-years-old and he was from the Congo.

His death, after the boat sank in which he was travelling from North Africa, has prompted comparisons with that of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian Kurdish boy whose body was washed up after he drowned in the Mediterranean while fleeing the war in Syria two years ago.

The world cried out then but today, more often, stifles those cries or turns the other way to the plight of Samuel and others like him. While little Samuel and Alan were in the company of family when they died, many child refugees make such journeys alone. Lucky enough to make it to Europe, they, unlike adults, are invisible and voiceless.

Regardless of their circumstances, these children hanker desperately for safety and stability. In places such as Serbia and elsewhere in central Europe, refugee children are sleeping rough in the streets in sub-zero temperatures. Perhaps 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared and many have probably fallen into the hands of criminal trafficking syndicates, according to the EU's criminal intelligence agency Europol.

There are other predators. As the Quilliam Foundation, a UK-based counter-extremism think tank has revealed, terrorist groups such as Islamic State are targeting unaccompanied child refugees in conflict-zone camps. The jihadists distribute food and try to buy allegiance from desperate youngsters by funding the first leg of their journey to Europe.

Some will argue that this is why we need to keep refugees out but they are wrong. Such instances are still rare in the tide of needy youngsters trying to make their way to safety. If there is any justification in the security argument, it only adds to the case for a policy that embraces security concerns but, above all, is driven by a humanitarian and moral imperative.

I read a story recently about how, 80 years ago, John Langdon-Davies, a war correspondent like me, came across a young boy alone with a note around his neck at a train station during the Spanish Civil War. It read: "This is Jose. I am his father and when Santander falls, I will be shot. Whoever finds my son, please take care of him."

Langdon-Davies did not turn away but campaigned for the rest of his life for children orphaned by war and other circumstances they had no part in making. Just as in those dark days of the 1930's, in today's troubled political times it's all too easy to blame outsiders and shut our doors, borders and hearts to the world's most vulnerable.

We need to do what our instincts tell us is right when protecting refugee children, not what some of our politicians would have us believe is right. Lord Alf Dubs and Langdon-Davies were right in what they did. The UK Government's decision on refugee children this week was wrong, shamefully so.


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MailOnline


January 30, 2017 Monday 2:28 AM GMT 


Church leaders speak out against Donald Trump's decision to prioritize evangelical refugees as the President confirms his plan in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network 


BYLINE: CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 688 words



Christian leaders have spoken out against Donald Trump's plan to prioritize Christian refugees, as the president confirmed his decision in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network. 

The segment, which aired Sunday evening, was taped at the White House Friday, the same day Trump signed an executive order banning Syrian refugees indefinitely and closing US doors to visitors from seven predominantly Muslims countries.

During the interview, the president pledged to give priority to Christians applying for refugee status, saying it had been easier for Muslim people to get into the United States than for Christians. Available evidence, however, shows that the US admitted 37,521 Christian refugees and 38,901 Muslim refugees in 2016.

Trump's CBN interview came after the mogul denied that his executive actions represented a Muslim ban, and while protests took place across the nation against the immigration order.

Scroll down for video 

CBN host David Brody asked Trump during the interview: 'As it relates to persecuted Christians, do you see them as kind of a priority here?'

Trump replied: 'Yes.'

When Brody asked again, 'You do?' the president continued: 'They've been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States?

'If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.'

Numbers provided by the Pew Center show that the US admitted almost the same numbers of Christian and Muslim refugees in 2016 - 37,521 and 38,901 respectively.

Syria's population is made up of 93 per cent of Muslim people and five per cent of Christians, according to a 2010 estimate by the Pew Center.

'We have no evidence that would support a belief that the Obama administration was discriminating against Christian populations,' Reverend Scott Arbeiter, the president of World Relief, the humanitarian branch of the National Association of Evangelicals, told the  New York Times.

Christian leaders have said they oppose Trump's decision to prioritize Christian refugees.

'We believe in assisting all, regardless of their religious beliefs,' Bishop Joe S Vásquez, who chairs the migration committee of the US Conference Of Catholic Bishops, told the newspaper.

One of the religious leaders speaking out against the executive order was Jen Smyers, the associate director for immigration and refugee policy of Church World Service, a ministry with more than 30 denominations in its members.

Smyers said that Friday, the day Trump signed the executive order setting up the immigration bans, was a 'shameful day' for the US.

'Christ calls us to care for everyone, regardless of who they are and where they come from,' World Relief's senior vice president of advocacy and policy Jenny Yang told The Atlantic. 'That has to be a core part of our witness-not just caring for our own, but caring for others as well.'

Trump told Brody during the rest of the  interview  that he had been relying on his own faith more since becoming president.

'The office is so powerful that you need God even more because your decisions are no longer, "Gee I'm gonna build a building in New York." These are questions of massive life and death,' he said.

The mogul also said he thought he knew would he would pick as a Supreme Court justice but wasn't '100 per cent'.

'I think the person that I pick will be a big, big - I think people are gonna love it. I think evangelicals, Christians will love my pick and will be represented very fairly,' he added. 


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 3:38 PM GMT 


US Vice President Mike Pence called Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'offensive and unconstitutional' just one year ago;
As the Governor of Indian Mike Pence showed his horror over Trump's plans for a ban on Muslims entering America


BYLINE: By Anthony Bond


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1329 words


Donald Trump's ban on nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries has horrified many international organisations and politicians.

But it appears as though some of those closest to the new US President may also be concerned.

Before he became the Vice President of America, Mike Pence showed his horror over Trump's plans for a ban on Muslims entering America.

Writing on Twitter in December 2015 when he was Governor of Indiana, Pence wrote: "Calls to ban Muslims from entering the US are offensive and unconstitutional."

But almost exactly a week after Pence became the 48th Vice President of the US, Trump last night announced his strict new rules. 

Muslim travellers turned away from US after Donald Trump's ban as Google 'recalls overseas staff'

President Trump ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

He also said no visas will be issued to nationals from seven mainly-Muslim nations of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

It has already raised concerns that an Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar may also be unable to attend the prestigious event.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

Fans of the renowned filmmaker - who won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation - now fear he will be unable to attend Hollywood's biggest night in February.

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Join the conversation

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'means Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend ceremony'

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."

Have you been affected by Donald Trump's new rules for entering the US?

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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 27, 2017 Friday 9:58 PM GMT 


Donald Trump signs executive order to ban refugees and rebuild the military;
Syrian refugees will be banned 'indefinitely'. Refugees from the other six countries will be banned for 120 days


BYLINE: Rachael Revesz


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 535 words


Donald Trump has signed two executive orders to ban refugees from entering the US and to rebuild the military.

One order begins the process, in his view, or building up the armed forces, while the other is designed to prohibit radical terrorists from entering the country, but acts as a temporary, blanket ban for any refugee coming to the US. 

"This is big stuff," he said, signing the order in front of a raft of cameras.

Read more

Trump to ban refugees from some Muslim countries today

It is the first act to institute a threat he first gave in December 2015 shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris, when he said all Muslims should be banned from the country.

Muslims will be the biggest victim of the new executive order, which was dialled down since 2015 to only target immigrants from seven Muslim-dominated countries: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. These countries are affected by conflict and terrorism, but anyone escaping persecution and death will be barred from refuge in the US.

Syrian refugees will be banned "indefinitely". It already takes around two years for Syrian refugees to be vetted and enter the US. Refugees from the other six countries will be banned for 120 days.

"[This is a] measure to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of America. We don't want them here," said Mr Trump.

He warned that the US should never forget the attacks of 9/11 or those who lost their lives in the Pentagon.

FindTheData.org | Graphiq

"We don't want to admit the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those that support our country and love, deeply, our people."

It is yet to be defined how the President will carry out his proposal of "extreme vetting" and the "religious test" of incoming immigrants when the ban is lifted.

Rep Michael McCaul, the Republican and Homeland Security chairman, told CNN that Christians from Syria would not pose a terrorist threat to the US compared to Muslims.

"It seems to be they [Christians] would be top of the list," he said.

The President has been widely condemned for threatening to institute this order, which was seen as discriminatory.

It was signed on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a reminder that the US barred tens of thousands of Jews from a safe haven when more than six million of their people were being murdered by Nazis.

He then signed another executive order to rebuild the military, to build "new planes, new ships, tools and resources".

In 2015, the US spent $598 billion on the military.

Read more

The Muslim country Trump isn't banning refugees from

Boris Johnson refuses to criticise Donald Trump's plan to ban refugees

Trump expected to order Mexican border wall and ban refugees

"As we prepare our budget request for Congress, our military strength will be questioned by no one and neither will our dedication to peace. And we do want peace," he said.

The orders were signed while General James Mattis was being sworn in as defense secretary.

"I want to extend a very special congratulations to a great man and that's Secretary Mattis," he said. "I think he's going to lead us so brilliantly. He's a tremendous solider, always has been. He's a general's general."


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The Guardian(London)


June 12, 2017 Monday 7:00 PM GMT 


Refugee documentaries offer window into banality, brutality and hope;
A movie shot on mobile phone on Manus Island and another following asylum seekers stranded in Indonesia shown at Australian film festivals


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 624 words


The experience of refugees seeking sanctuary in Australia by boat - and the human impact of Australia's border policies - are the focus of two new documentaries at film festivals across Australia this week.

Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time is the collaborative work of the Manus Island refugee and Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani and the Dutch-Iranian film-maker Arash Kamali Sarvestani. The film offers a rare glimpse into the banality and brutality of life inside Australia's secretive offshore detention regime.

The documentary was filmed inside the Manus detention centre over the course of months, shot entirely on a mobile phone kept hidden from authorities by Boochani. The pair worked together by distance: Boochani filming short clips and sending them via WhatsApp - and Manus's sclerotic internet - to Sarvestani, who built the narrative of Chauka piece-by-piece.  

There is little dialogue for much of the documentary, the stark, simple images are left to carry the story. Repeatedly, Boochani's camera phone will focus on a symbol of freedom - a beach scene, a butterfly, a kitten - only to pull back to reveal the view is one from behind the wire of a three-metre-high steel security fence.

Chauka is the name of a bird indigenous to Manus Island. It was also the name of a notorious secret solitary confinement wing of the Manus detention centre where "non-compliant" refugees, including Boochani, were taken.

The Chauka birds regularly sound their distinctive call throughout the day on Manus - they can be heard repeatedly on the film - and are regarded as unofficial keepers of time by Manusians. But time, as this film shows, has little meaning for 900 men who have been held there in indefinite detention for nearly four years, with no clear ending to their confinement.

The Staging Post follows Muzafar Ali and Khadim Dai, two Afghan Hazara refugees stranded in Indonesia after Australia's Operation Sovereign Borders "stopped the boats" and began forcibly returning asylum seeker vessels to Indonesia. It is screening in Sydney and Melbourne as part of the Refugee film festival.

Ali, a former UN worker in Afghanistan, and Dai, once a national karate champion, fled persecution at the hands of the Taliban but found themselves stuck in Cisarua, outside Jakarta, unable to flee further.

Related: UN official says Australia responsible for 'inhuman' treatment of asylum seekers

Indonesia is not a party to the refugees convention, so refugees stranded there live an insecure and penurious half-life at the margins of their new community - unable to work, study or build a life, and ever at risk of being arrested and detained.

But amid ongoing concern about what, if anything will come of their futures, The Staging Post is a story of hope.

Stranded, and waiting - potentially for decades - for a chance at resettlement that may never come, Ali and Dai build a community of similarly stranded refugees, and opened the Cisarua refugee learning centre for the children who would otherwise be unable to get an education.

Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time screens in Sydney, at Event Cinemas in George Street, on 15 June at 8pm as part of the Sydney film festival. It will also screen in Melbourne at Federation Square on 16, 17 and 18 June . The Refugee film festival is being held in Sydney ( 17-18 June) and Melbourne ( 18-24 June). The Staging Post screens at the NSW State Library, Saturday 17 June at 2pm, and at Nova Cinemas, Carlton, on Sunday, June 18, at 6pm


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March 9, 2017 Thursday


President insists Kenya will close down Dadaab camp


LENGTH: 586 words


Text of report by Aggrey Mutambo entitled "We've to shut Dadaab for security, Uhuru Kenyatta tells UN" in English published by Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation on 9 March

President Uhuru Kenyatta says the Dadaab refugee complex [in eastern Kenya] will have to be closed for the good of the region, in spite of incessant campaigns by rights groups to have the plan abandoned.

At a joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President Kenyatta argued the camp as it is today no longer serves its original purpose of offering temporary shelter. 

"Our policy has been clear for some time: The events that led to the establishment of Dadaab are terribly tragic and the best response to that tragedy is to help refugees to return and rebuild their nation," he said at State House, Nairobi.

"And that is Kenya's policy and our efforts to hasten repatriation and resettlement of refugees. But as always, these efforts shall remain guided by relevant domestic and international laws."

But Mr Guterres, touring the region for the first time, after taking over as the 9th UN chief, said he had had had "positive" discussions with the Kenyan president on various issues affecting the Horn of Africa. With drought ravaging the region, the UN has put up a 4bn US dollar-funding appeal to deal with the crisis that has affected Kenya, Somalia, parts of Ethiopia and South Sudan.

On Tuesday [7 March], he was in Mogadishu where he raised the alarm of a possible famine if new funding is not met.

On Wednesday [8 March], he was in Nairobi where he declared "total support" for efforts to combat drought in the country.

But the former head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also knows he has to plead with Kenya not to send back refugees just yet.

President Kenyatta spoke just weeks after the High Court in Nairobi ruled that the planned repatriation of refugees would be unconstitutional.

Justice John Mativo ruled that Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and his PS Karanja Kibicho had no powers to order closure of the camp, despite claims that there were serious security, environmental and economic concerns.

The government initially said it would appeal the decision.

On Wednesday [8 March], the president said his government would continue to discuss the matter with stakeholders to find a possible solution.

On 25 March, Nairobi will be hosting an extra-ordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional bloc of eight countries in the eastern Africa.

"The conference shows that Kenya is willing to consult and ready to listen to views from those who wish Somalia, and indeed our entire region, well," the President said. Dadaab is the largest refugee camp in the world by population.

At one time in 2011, it hosted up to 500,000 people mostly Somali refugees fleeing both violence and drought.

That number has since dropped to 260,000, according to February figures from the UNHCR.

In 2013, Kenya, Somalia and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement to have the refugees voluntarily returned.

But the challenge of funds, and the problem of convincing them to leave, meant the three-year agreement could not be met.

In February, UNHCR said the target for voluntary repatriation would be met as there are about 2,000 refugees leaving the camp every week on their own.

Kenya had argued the camp needed to be closed as soon as possible to eliminate the security threat it poses.

Humanitarian agencies think different.

Source: Daily Nation, Nairobi, in English 0000 gmt 9 Mar 17


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 2, 2017 Thursday 10:53 PM GMT 


Mayor of Calais 'bans distribution of food to migrants';
Natacha Bouchart says she is 'personally opposed, even if it is difficult to say so on a human level'tohumanitarian aidefforts in the region


BYLINE: Lucy Pasha-Robinson


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:1


LENGTH: 529 words


The Mayor of Calais has reportedly banned the distribution of meals to migrants in a bid to prevent a new refugee camp from forming in the area, just months after the Jungle was demolished. 

Natacha Bouchart said she was "personally opposed, even if it is difficult to say so on a human level" to any humanitarian efforts in the region, including setting up showers and distributing meals, La Voix du Nord reports.

The Les Républicains politician also claimed handing out meals posed a security threat to the area.

Read more

Hundreds of refugees return to 'secret camps' near Calais

Child refugees in France record desparate plea to Theresa May

Home Office set to review child refugee asylum claims in France

Amber Rudd says child refugee criticism is 'fake news'

Legal documents setting out the restrictions were reportedly posted near to the site of the demolished camp.

The mayoral decree said the "regular, persistent and large presence of individuals distributing meals to migrants" threatened the peace and security of the area.

It also banned any "repeated, prolonged gatherings" in the area, making handing out food impossible.

However charities said the decree would not change their approach.

"We have handed out food both day and night for two months, and we will continue to do it for a simple reason: people are hungry," Gaël Monzy with charity Utopia56 said.

Calais's refugee children have a message for the UK government

L'Auberge des Migrants charity president Christian Salomé said a ban would affect refugee children the most.

"Adults will always find a way to buy food in the shops, but for minors it will be a real problem - they have no money at all," he told

The Guardian

.

France's interior minister Bruno Le Roux repeated several times there would be no new camp in Calais during a visit on Wednesday. However, he added: "We will not prevent the distribution of meals."

It came as more than 400 migrants, mostly unaccompanied children, returned to northern France in recent weeks.

France moved more than 6,000 migrants, many fleeing poverty and war in their homelands, from the site of the makeshift camp in the port city last October.

Most were sent to reception centres around the country in a bid to calm growing local anger.

Migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa have streamed into Calais for years, hoping to cross the short stretch of sea to Britain by leaping onto trucks and trains, or even walking through the tunnel under the Channel.

Read more

Refugee children in France have started turning back to Calais

Last year, it was widely thought the Government would take 3,000 lone children from European refugee camps after Lord Alfred Dubs forced the Government to accept an amendment on the matter when the Immigration Act passed through Parliament.

However, the Home Office unexpectedly announced the scheme would end after 100 more children reached the UK, bringing total numbers to 350.

A separate scheme to bring unaccompanied refugee children with direct family links to Britain under the Dublin convention was also closed.

Now the Home Office has confirmed it has agreed with French authorities to reconsider some of these Dublin cases.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 30, 2017 Monday 11:11 AM GMT 


Everything we know about Donald Trump's 'Muslim travel ban';
What the new US President ordered and what the globalreaction has been


BYLINE: Alicia A. Caldwell, Jill Colvin


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 789 words


President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that makes major changes to America's immigration system.

The move has subsequently sparkedconfusion at airports, protests across the country and denunciations from leaders around the world.

A look at what Trump ordered and the reaction:

No entry 

Trump's executive order temporarily suspends all immigration for citizens of seven majority Muslim countries for 90 days. They are: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The order also calls for Homeland Security and State department officials, along with the director of national intelligence, to review what information the government needs to fully vet would-be visitors and come up with a list of countries that don't provide it. The order says the government will give countries 60 days to start providing the information or citizens from those countries will be barred from travelling to the United States.

Read more

Trump asked how to 'legally' create 'Muslim ban', claims Giuliani

Green card holders and dual citizens

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a statement Sunday declaring that, absent information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, residency would be a "dispositive factor in our case-by-case determination." That means citizens of the seven target countries who hold permanent US residency "green cards" will not be barred from re-entering the US, as officials had previously said.

Officials also clarified Sunday that dual citizens who are nationals of one of the seven target countries and a country that's not on the list will be subject to additional security screenings, but will likely be allowed through.

Refugees

Trump ordered a four-month suspension of America's refugee program. The suspension is intended to provide time to review how refugees are vetted before they are allowed to resettle in the United States.

Trump's order also cuts the number of refugees the United States plans to accept this budget year by more than half, to 50,000 people from around the world.

During the last budget year the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the current refugee limit at 110,000.

The temporary halt to refugee admissions does include exceptions for people claiming religious persecution, so long as their religion is a minority faith in their country.

Syria

Trump's order directs the State Department to stop issuing visas to Syrian nationals and halts the processing of Syrian refugees. That will remain in effect until Trump determines that enough security changes have been made to ensure that would-be terrorists can't exploit weaknesses in the current vetting system.

Extreme vetting

Trump's order did not spell out specifically what additional steps he wants to see the Homeland Security and State departments add to the country's vetting system for refugees. Instead he directed officials to the review the refugee application and approval process to find any other security measures that can be added to prevent people who pose a threat from using the refugee program.

During the Obama administration, vetting for refugees included in-person interviews overseas, where they provided biographical details about themselves, including their families, friendships, social or political activities, employment, phone numbers, email accounts and more. They also provided biometric information, including fingerprints. Syrians were subject to additional, classified controls that administration officials at the time declined to describe, and processing for that group routinely took years to complete.

The response at home

Trump's order sparked an immediate backlash and sowed chaos and outrage, with

travel

lers

getting detained at airports, panicked families searching for relatives and protesters marching against the sweeping measure - parts of which were blocked by several federal courts.

Protests were held across the country, including in sight of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York City and at international airports where travellers were temporarily detained.

The response abroad

Leaders of Britain and Germany joined other American allies in criticising Trump's entry ban, voicing anger and dismay, even as some far-right politicians expressed hope the move would inspire similar measures in Europe. The far-right National Democratic Party in Germany, for instance, celebrated "the massive restriction on the entry of pseudo-refugees and Muslims to the USA."

A petition on the British Parliament's website, meanwhile, attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures backing its call for Trump, who has been invited to meet Queen Elizabeth II, to be barred on the basis of misogyny and vulgarity.

AP


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MailOnline


May 23, 2017 Tuesday 6:29 AM GMT 


US starts 'extreme vetting' at Australia's offshore detention centers ahead of Obama-arranged refugee swap that Trump called a 'dumb deal'


BYLINE: REUTERS


SECTION: NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 594 words



American officials have started 'extreme vetting' interviews at Australia's offshore detention centers as Washington makes good on a refugee swap. 

President Donald Trump called it a 'dumb deal', but his administration said last month they would hold up the agreement to offer refuge to up to 1,250 asylum seekers on the condition that they satisfied strict checks. 

In exchange, Australia has pledged to take Central American refugees from a center in Costa Rica, where the United States has expanded intake in recent years, under the deal struck with former President Barack Obama. 

US Homeland Security officials finished the first security interviews last week at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island detention center, two refugees who went through the process told Reuters.

The refugees said the interviews began with an oath to God to tell the truth and then proceeded for as long as six hours, with in-depth questions on associates, family, friends and any interactions with the Islamic State militant group.

'They asked about why I fled my home, why I sought asylum in Australia,' said one refugee who declined to be named, fearing it could jeopardize his application for US resettlement.

The security interviews are the last stage of US consideration of applicants.

Manus Island is one of two Australian-operated detention centers, which hold nearly 1,300 people who were intercepted trying to reach Australia by boat. The other detention center is on the Pacific island nation of Nauru.

Human rights groups have condemned the intercept policy and the harsh conditions of the camps. 

Australia says offshore processing is needed as a deterrent after thousands of people drowned at sea before the policy was introduced in 2013.

A decision on the fate of the first 70 people interviewed is expected to be reached within the next month, a different source who works with refugees said.

A spokesman for Australia's immigration minister refused to comment on the resettlement process.

The State Department and White House did not immediately respond to questions.

President Donald Trump's plans for extreme vetting have extended to those traveling to the United States from Muslim countries.

Australia's relationship with the new administration in Washington got off to a rocky start when Trump lambasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the resettlement arrangement, which Trump labeled a 'dumb deal'.

Details of an acrimonious phone call between the pair soon after Trump took office made headlines around the world. 

Australia is one of Washington's staunchest allies and has sent troops to fight alongside the US military in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The relocation of asylum seekers to the United States is designed to help Papua New Guinea and Australia proceed with the planned closure of the Manus detention center on Oct. 31.

But the fate of approximately 200 men deemed non-refugees is uncertain.

Those not offered resettlement in the United States will be offered the chance to settle in Papua New Guinea or return home.

Australia has already offered detainees up to $25,000 to voluntarily return home; an offer very few have taken up.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 22, 2017 Wednesday 5:51 PM GMT 


'We are the lucky ones': Young refugees plead for ministers to protect unaccompanied minors;
Former unaccompanied minorswho were 'traded like cattle by smugglers' trying to get to Britain pen public letter pleadingwith ministers to protect unaccompanied minors whose lives are at risk


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 733 words


A group of young refugees and asylum seekers who embarked on perilous journeys as children to reach safety in the UKhave urged the Government not to end the transfer ofunaccompanied minors to Britain.

In an open letter following the controversial closure of the Dubs scheme - which aimed to bring vulnerable lone refugee children to Britain -17 former unaccompanied minors accuse ministers of failing to listen to the voices of those affected and subsequently putting young lives at risk.

The young refugees, aged between 16 and 22 and from countries including Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Eritrea, detail the perilous journeys they had to take to reach the UK because there were no safe, legal routes to protection. 

Read more

Home Office set to review child refugee asylum claims in France

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

May closes the door on child refugees but keeps it open for Trump

"Many of us have been traded like cattle between groups of smugglers on our journeys. Many of us boarded over-filled rubber boats to get here," the letter reads.

"Many of us know someone who died on the journey."

Some of the signatories fled through the Sahara desert and were detained in Libya before making the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing. One spent eight hours in a freezer during his journey, which took him through 11 different countries.

The youngsters, who drafted the letter with the help of the British Red Cross, describe themselves as "the lucky ones", and urge that their voices must be listen to in order to prevent others being put at risk on the dangerous journey.

"We use our voice now to say this: please don't put the lives of young refugees like us at risk," they letter continues.

"We all wish we didn't have to make this journey. We urge everyone with influence to come together to establish safe, legal routes for young people to find protection."

One signatory, an 18-year-old from Iran, described the journey he had to take to reach the UKas "deadly", citing women being assaulted and children being sexually abused.

The youngster, who along with the other refugees remains anonymous because they were children when they arrived in Britain, said: "I came by lorry to the UK through Calais. This route is really dangerous, not just for children and minors but also for families and adults. They should make it easier for children to come safely to the UK.

"Assaulting women, sexually abusing children, the smugglers are really not nice people. I would like them to make it safer. I saw so many people die, this is a deadly journey."

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

When the Dubs Amendment passed through the Commons last year following pressure from Lord Alf Dubs, itwashailed as a humanitarian success that would see 3,000 lone children from European refugee camps brought to the UK.

But no figure was agreed at the time, and two weeks ago the Home Office unexpectedly announced the scheme would end after 100 more children reached the UK, bringing total numbers to 350.

Faced with a furious backlash from human rights campaigners and other senior figures, the Government defended its decision arguing the programme could "incentivise" children to travel to Europe.

Home Secretary AmberRudd also attributed the closure to a lack of local funding, a claim furiously disputed by several local councils who said they had written to the Ms Rudd to urge approval of more child asylum seekers.

Ministers have since announced the Home Officewill review asylum applications from child refugees in France,after it emerged up to 400 unaccompanied minors had made their way back to Calais in recent weeks and were sleeping on the streets. It is unclear however how many of the decisions will be overturned.

Mike Adamson, Chief Executive of the British Red Cross said: "Children who have made the perilous crossing to Europe on their own have often witnessed things unimaginable to most adults, both in the countries they have fled and on their journey to find protection.

"We should all be doing more to step up to the task of providing these children with a safe home.

"We encourage the government to take notice of what these young people are saying - that opening up more safe, legal routes to the UK, such as the Dubs scheme, will spare others from having to take the same risks that they had to in search of protection."


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The Guardian


January 25, 2017 Wednesday 9:19 AM GMT 


Cold weather reignites fears for refugees poorly sheltered in Greece;
Thousands housed in inadequate facilities are at risk as temperatures plummet, warn aid groups and local mayors on islands


BYLINE: Helena Smith in Athens


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 703 words


A new bout of cold weather across southern Europe has reignited fears for thousands of refugees and migrants sheltered in deplorable conditions in Greece.

Forecasts of freezing temperatures have also been met with trepidation by international agencies, aid groups and local mayors on islands.

"Thousands of people are poised to suffer needlessly in conditions that are becoming increasingly desperate," said Eva Cosse at Human Rights Watch. "Europe's failed policies have contributed to immense suffering for people warehoused on the Greek islands."  

Greece was the focus of public outcry this month after shocking footage emerged of refugees on Lesbos living in flimsy, snow-swamped tents as an arctic blast sent temperatures plummeting to -14C. The outcry prompted the government to dispatch a naval ship to temporarily house up to 500 people detained at the island's vastly overcrowded Moria reception centre. Others were moved into heated containers, hotel rooms and apartments.

But the measures have proved inadequate and with more severe weather on the way officials, volunteers and human rights defenders fear the worst. Sub-zero temperatures are expected by Thursday.

Since the closure of the Balkan route into Europe, more than 62,000 men women and children have been trapped in Greece, according to government figures. Every day a steady trickle continues to arrive on rickety boats from Turkey, placing increasing pressure on Lesbos and other eastern Aegean islands close to the Asia Minor coast.

"It is not much talked about, but this month alone 900 people have reached Greece," said Gianmaria Pinto, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "Right now I am on Chios and in one camp there are people living on the beach, in small tents, exposed to the wind and rain. They should be moved to better and more humane conditions and the structures and opportunity for that are only on the mainland."

Under a controversial deal agreed by the EU and Turkey to curb an influx that surpassed a million people in 2015, Greek authorities last year accepted the introduction of a policy of containment in order to process asylum seekers at accelerated rates. By restricting refugees to islands it was hoped "secondary movement" into Europe could be reduced and those undeserving of asylum easily repatriated to Turkey.

Instead, the policy has backfired with thousands of refugees being forced to endure dire conditions in overcrowded camps while their asylum requests are processed slowly. Many have been in the facilities since March when the EU-Turkey accord was signed.

Despite the allocation of (EURO)90m (£77m) in EU funding, the Greek government - with the UN refugee agency and other aid groups - stand accused of failing to properly "winterise" facilities.

On Monday, mayors on the five islands most affected by the flow of refugees appealed to the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, for relief, arguing it was vital that refugees were transferred to the mainland immediately.

"We shouldn't tempt fate," Manolis Vournous, the mayor of Chios, told the Guardian. "There are 50,000 people living on Chios and 2,500 are refugees. That is totally disproportionate. There are huge and negative consequences on our society, on our economy. We have to do something before it is too late."

Government data released on Tuesday showed 15,248 migrants and refugees - nearly twice the official reception capacity - ensconced on Chios, Lesbos, Samos, Kos and Leros.

In contrast to 2015, when the vast majority were Syrian, most of those now arriving in the country are economic migrants, according to the Greek migration minister, Yiannis Mouzalas.

With the help of smugglers some are making it further into Europe. Many of those freezing this week in sub-zero temperatures in Serbia are thought to have made the journey from Greece, a country regarded as a prison by the vast majority.

"Nothing justifies keeping thousands of migrants and asylum seekers in such terrible conditions on the Greek islands," said Cosse. "Their suffering is not only the consequence of the slow winterisation of facilities but also of a deliberate refusal to transfer more people to the mainland."


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Stirling News


March 1, 2017 Wednesday


Hugh Grant gives talk on Syrians to Rotary Club


BYLINE: Iain Smith


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 564 words


HUGH GRANT was welcomed on his return as guest speaker to the Bridge of Allan and Dunblane Rotary Club meeting on Thursday.

His subject was the Stirling Citizens for Sanctuary initiative (SCfS), initially established in June 2015 in the Stirling Council area by a group concerned about the plight of vulnerable refugees from Syria. 

Hugh spoke movingly of the background that had given impetus to the establishment of the group.

He described the appalling circumstances in Syria where, as a result of the internal conflict, out of a total population of eighteen million, five million people have left the country to find refuge in neighbouring countries, and where a further six million have been displaced in Syria itself.

Aware of the inevitable human suffering and the precarious nature of the existence of these refugees, a number of Stirling citizens approached local politicians, then in the period leading up to the local elections.

They drew to their attention the government grants available for resettlement of the most vulnerable refugees, and sought a commitment that Stirling would act to resettle some of these refugees. There was unanimous support for such a commitment.

Following a vigil at the Albert Halls and a petition in support of such steps, the council agreed to take action and appointed a lead officer in October 2015. It was some four months later that the first refugees arrived, by which time Clackmannanshire Council had joined Stirling in supporting the resettlement efforts.

SCfS, in the meantime, was established as a registered charity with a group of trustees, a paid employee and more than fifty volunteers.

While the two councils are involved in the provision of housing and appropriate education and health arrangements, SCfS has worked with the councils, focusing on integrating the refugees into the community, helping with transport, providing sporting and recreational activities and giving practice in English.

This involvement and support has been greatly appreciated by the refugees, who, in turn, have responded with warm appreciation.

Overall, Hugh gave an optimistic assessment of the project to-date. Its success has rested on the effective collaboration between the councils and SCfS, which has ensured a smooth integration of the refugees into the community, and made a contribution to the refugee crisis.

In closing, Hugh drew attention to a special fundraising concert to be given by Aman Jarjour, the internationally renowned classical guitarist, on Saturday, March 4, at 7.30 pm in Kippen Parish Church. Proceeds will be used to address needs arising from the Syrian crisis.

Peter Holmes, speaker's host, thanked Hugh for his talk, and conveyed members' admiration of the work SCfC is doing.

President Nick Rawlings announced the winners of the annual curling competition for the Charlie Proctor broom.

This year, the team led by Graham Russell, with members Alan Lee, Stuart Brown and Rod Jones, overcame their rivals by a comfortable margin.

The meeting of the Rotary Club on Thursday, March 2, will be held at the Westlands Hotel, Doune Road, at 6pm for 6.30pm.

The speaker will be Alastair Templeton who will talk about the Queensferry Crossing - the new bridge over the Firth of Forth.

Visitors to the club are always very welcome and anyone interested can contact the club secretary Iain Fraser at secretary@dunblanerotary.org or on 01786 822751.


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February 9, 2017 Thursday 11:41 PM GMT 


There is no excuse for turning our backs on these refugee kids - we're their last hope;
Lord Alf Dubs is the Labour peer who came to the UK from Nazi-occupied Prague during World War Two


BYLINE: By Alf Dubs


SECTION: NEWS,POLITICS


LENGTH: 898 words


Just before theSecond World WarBritain took 10,000 unaccompanied­ child refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. I was one.

My mother wasn't Jewish but my father was and he left us as soon as the Germans occupied Prague in March 1939.

He had previously said to his cousins that if the Nazis came he would be gone. They said they'd take their chance and in 1942 the Gestapo came for them. 

I was only six-years-old but I remember having to tear out a picture of President Benes and replace it with one ofAdolf Hitlerin my school books, and there were lots of German soldiers everywhere.

My mother, refused permission to leave, put me on the Kindertransport, trains which brought thousands­ of children to Britain.

She put sandwiches in a box for me but I didn't touch them the whole journey. I think I was a bit traumatised by the whole thing.

I can still see my mother on the platform­ surrounded by other anxious parents. In the background, a German soldier with a swastika.

It was an interminable journey and I remember the hard wooden seats. We got to the Dutch border and the older ones cheered as we were out of the reach of the Nazis.

Archbishop of Canterbury and Tory MPs join outrage at government 'shutting the door' on child refugees

I was lucky my father met me at Liverpool Street Station - but most children didn't have anyone to meet them.

Britain took in and saved those 10,000childrenwhen other countries weren't doing anything.

Last year I fought hard for Britain to be a saviour again, with today's young people who need our help.

This time it is not victims of the Nazis but Syrian children who are alone and vulnerable after fleeing their devastating conflict.

Despite resistance from then Premier David Cameron, the Government agreed to work with charities and welcome unaccompanied Syrian child refugees to Britain, if they had arrived in Europe before a March deadline.

After months of campaigning and setbacks, we believed an amendment to the Immigration Act 2016 would mean as many as 3,000 youngsters could be given a new, safe life here in Britain.

Suddenly they have said the door is shut.

I asked in the House of Lords why the Government has decided to close the scheme for unaccompanied child refugees.

Their response was that the scheme hasn't closed - they have taken in 200 children and plan to take another 150.

But once the 350 are here the scheme is effectively finished - and 350 is a drop in the ocean compared to the need. There were 90,000 refugee children stuck in Europe without parents.

Dejan Lovren shares intimate trailer for documentary on his past as a refugee

I had an easy journey in the sense that I was on a train. Most of the child refugees in 2017 have had desperate journeys.

Many of them have seen their parents killed by bombs in Damascus or Aleppo and experienced a terrifying time.

It has taken months for them to cross Europe, only to get to somewhere like Calais or the dreadful Greek refugee camps.

I was in Greece about a month ago and the conditions are appalling. It is bitterly cold and there are about 2,000 unaccompanied­ children there.

Their one hope was a new life in Britain, a country that always had, until now, a worldwide reputation for welcoming those most in need.

So I am utterly dismayed the Government is now refusing to help, to save any more child refugees.

It is bitterly disappointing for the children that might have come here, and a breach of the Government's original undertaking.

As the legislation was discussed last year, Theresa May, then Home Secretary, said we propose to accept your amendment.

Immigration­ Minister James Brokenshire said: "We have a moral duty to help", and told me we intend to accept the letter and spirit of your amendment.

Well, they haven't done that. Instead they have backed off in a big way and turned their backs on these vulnerable children.

There was nothing in the amendment­ about a limit on numbers, there was no time limit.

Now Home Secretary Amber Rudd has suggested the scheme "acts as a pull" for children to head here and encourages­ traffickers.

I disagree it increases the risk of trafficking. Firstly, the Government themselves said the cut-off point would be March last year so any child refugees accepted on the scheme had to be in Europe by then.

Also, if we don't give them a legal route to Britain, traffickers will have even more business to find illegal routes for child refugees.

Trafficking is a vile crime, but I don't think you will stamp it out by encouraging people to come here illegally.

Saying local authorities simply cannot take any more child refugees is weak too.

I know of local authorities­ willing to be considered for more refugees.

And if the Government had difficulty in finding enough quickly, they should have said they will keep the scheme going at the speed authorities can have children fostered or cared for.

The Government is using this as a very shabby excuse.

Obviously other countries should do something as well, but we have an amendment, we have it in the Immigration Act, and we should step up to the mark.

The Government is going against parliamentary, and public, opinion. It is also going against Britain's humanitarian traditions.

It is very sad the Government has decided to do this. And I really don't understand why.

So I hope the combination of parliamentary pressure, political pressure and public opinion will make the Government reconsider.


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Scotsman


May 10, 2017 Wednesday


Meet the families trapped in refugee camps after fleeing war


BYLINE: Jane Bradley


LENGTH: 1957 words


Jane Bradley meets families who fled war zones - only to be trapped in refugee camps

Shakila Mosanafe shows off a picture on her phone of a cityscape at night, dramatically lit with twinkling lights."My city," she says, her eyes filling with tears. "I want to go home. I want to go to Iraq,"

Shakila, 17, is one of around 200 refugees living in the Bujanovac camp in southern Serbia.

More than 7,300 refugees are trapped in the Baltic nation - unable to move onwards into western Europe since the border with Hungary was closed over a year ago. 

She is here with her parents, 20-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister. She says she still does not understand why her family decided six months ago that they had to leave their home, where she had friends and her school life. They are protecting her from the truth, she believes.

"They know something," she says. "I told my mother I didn't want to go and she started crying and said: I am going for you, not for myself'."

Shakila's father was involved in Kurdish opposition politics in Iran, where she lived until she was a toddler.

She remembers a moment during the family's treacherous journey of almost 2,000 miles when they were packed by people smugglers into a van in the middle of a forest.

"In that moment, my dad was crying," she remembers. "I was so scared. I was hugging my sister. That was only the second time I saw my dad cry."

All the refugees, bar none, have been forced to pay people smugglers thousands of pounds - for most, their life's savings - to get them to Serbia. All have stories about the horrific conditions they endured on what has become known as "the Journey" from the Middle East to the outermost borders of Europe, which involves treacherous boat trips in overcrowded dinghies and arduous hikes across mountainous regions lasting for days.

All hope they will be able to progress to claim asylum in western Europe.

Khalid Mortazazata, an Iranian high school English teacher, tells of his family's treatment at the hands of the Bulgarian mafia, who stripped him, his wife and two young children to their underwear and left them at the side of the road in freezing temperatures.

Khalid himself is no stranger to being a refugee. As a teenager, the 38-year-old university-educated Kurd had been forced to flee Iran due to his father's involvement in the opposition PDKI party - to settle in Iraq, where he lived peacefully for the next 20 years.

He met his wife, Abdulla, and the pair had two children, Danyal, seven, and Roza, four.

Life was good for the family. Then political tensions began to increase. "They said they were against us and they would kill us," he said. "That was when we decided to go. We did it for the kiddies."

After paying smugglers $11,500 (£9,000), the family travelled across the Middle East.

But it was in Bulgaria - a member nation of the European Union - that they ran into the worst problems. Smugglers packed them into a minivan to transport them to the Serbian border but less than half an hour later they were caught by the local mafia - who he believes was working with some of the smugglers - and stripped to their underwear.

"They took the clothes from all of the children, men and women," he remembers. "They took everything. Our mobiles, clothes, shoes and bags.

"One of them wanted to put his hand on the breast of my wife - they were searching for money and mobiles. But my wife reacted to them and they broke her hand.

"They had a gun which they put to the head of each of us. They had knives. They said: If you do anything we will kill you'.

"To save our kids, we said we wouldn't do anything. That night we spent without clothes, just underwear. It was very cold, it was September."

He adds: "It was one of the most terrible nights in my life. The children were crying and shaking in the cold weather. When I remember that night, I never wish that it happened in anybody's life, not just me."

Eventually a smuggler in Sofia sent a car to pick them up and they later continued their journey to the Serbian border, where they were picked up by local police.

"The police were very kind," he says.

He still believes that leaving Iraq was the right - and only - decision."I just want to be safe," says Khalid simply. "I had no economic problems in Iraq." He has a certificate from the United Nations' refugee arm, UNCHR, instructing that he should be "protected from forcible return" to a country where he could be in danger.

His sister is settled in Germany and his brother lives in London. Both left years before the refugee crisis began in earnest and were able to straight- forwardly claim asylum in Europe due to their father's political history.

Yet, like the thousands of other refugees in Serbia, Khalid has to wait his turn for his number to be called to the Hungarian border, where only a handful of refugees a day are being allowed through. Even some of those who are granted the chance of an interview with border officials are still turned back.

"We can live our lives normally here," he says of the camp where he is a community leader and has started teaching English to other residents. "It is good. But it is not our aim to spend our lives here [in a refugee camp]. We don't complain about our situation but it is not what we want."

Since we met, Khalid has travelled again - smuggling his family over the border to Romania, where he is now in a camp near the northern city of Baia Mare - and hopes that the fact the country is an EU nation will allow him to eventually be granted permission to travel on to Germany, to allow him to live with his sister.

"It is better here," he says. "In Serbia, it was like we were in prison because we could not move around, but here we can visit other cities."

Refugees living at the Bujanovac camp are lucky: most families have their own room, packed tightly with bunk-beds. Food is provided on a regular basis in a canteen by staff from a local organisation, Philanthropy, a project which is funded by the UK charity Christian Aid. The sense of community at this camp is strong. The children play happily together as they wait for food to be served and the women chat. A toddler is being looked after by other residents after her mother was admitted to hospital following complications relating to the birth of her second child.

Over dinner, Mohammed Ismail Omeri, 43, a perpetually smiling shopkeeper from Kabul who led his seven children and pregnant wife to Serbia from Afghanistan, introduces his ten-year-old daughter who has barely spoken since the family left their home, where Mohammed says he was robbed every day on his way back from work. The noise of bomb blasts and fear of Taleban attacks in their home town has left the child unable to do much else other than cry, he says.

His wife, Shamim, 36, who has given birth to their eighth child since arriving at Bujanovac, is also badly affected.

"My wife has lost her memory sometimes," he says. "She has seen a lot of bad things and sometimes she doesn't know where she is."

Their journey included a two-day stay in prison on the Iraq-Turkey border, during which he lost touch with his wife and children.

"I was thrown in the water [by police] and it was after that that I finally found my family," he says.

Well aware of the risks involved in continuing the journey, Mohammed focused on getting his family to Europe, where he hopes they will be cared for, no matter what happens to him. He says the most terrifying moment was when the people smugglers packed his family into a small overcrowded boat.

"It was when I was sitting on that small boat with 50 people that I was scared," he says. "I was thinking that I would die here on this boat, that we would all die."

But he was not deterred.

"I thought I will start my journey and go to my destination," he says. "It is better that I die like that. If I die there, what would happen to my children, who would take care of them?"

o As Christian Aid marks 60 years of Christian Aid Week, the organisation is inviting people to join them in standing in solidarity with refugees around the world. The charity has been working with refugees since the Second World War.

You could help to change the lives of people fleeing conflict and crisis this Christian Aid Week by donating online at {www.caweek.org | www.caweek.org | link to site} calling 08080 006 006, or texting GIVE' to 70040 to give £5.

Short term solution becomes home for the stranded

Presevo camp, on the edge of a small border town in southern Serbia, has been transformed over the past year.

Created on the site of a former factory in response to the thousands of refugees passing through the country en route to Germany, the Serbian government and aid agencies established the base as a "one stop centre" or transit camp.

Refugees previously stopped here briefly, were given a change of clothes and a meal and perhaps spent the night, and then were sent on their way along the so-called "West Balkan Route" on specially-chartered buses and trains.

By February 2016, when I first visited the camp, a couple of UNHCR tents had been erected to house the refugees in army-style bunks, while the Danish government had just paid for the refurbishment of some former offices to turn them into dormitories, complete with bunk beds and bathroom facilities - at that point, the facility was still to be opened.

But in March last year, everything changed. Countries surrounding Serbia closed their borders to refugees, meaning thousands became trapped within the former Yugoslavian nation, which is not yet in the European Union.

The Presevo camp and others like it around Serbia quickly became permanent settlements - housing more and more refugees travelling illegally over the border from Bulgaria.

Now, the temporary dormitories have become permanent homes. Some refugee families have lived here for more than a year. Families sleep in double bunk beds - dozens of them to a room - many of which have been cordoned off in an attempt at privacy by hanging blankets or sheets between the bunks.

Plastic carrier bags containing perishable food items hang from the windows in place of a fridge.

Permanent structures such as a shiny play park for the children in the camp have been erected, while a doctor's surgery manned by local Serbian health centre staff treats around 140 patients every day.

At both Presevo and a camp just 16 miles away in Bujanovac, social and educational activities are on offer, organised by charities and non-governmental organisations to keep the refugees occupied.

In one building at the back of the Presevo site, refugees are learning German, while a poster advertises "Gymnastics for Women" and "Drawing and Ping Pong for Men".

"Ich kaufe Gemuse", the refugees are repeating in their German lesson - "I buy vegetables".

At Bujanovac, around 16 miles north, educational activities for children are tightly scheduled - from "psychomotor learning activities" such as drawing, painting and playing with clay for younger ­children, to computer-related activities for teenagers.

In an effort to help the refugees - many of them naturally opposing communities on home ground - live together harmoniously, activities even involve Kurdish lessons, taught by a refugee, and cultural awareness events.

"Occupational activities were planned for certain number of people, but interest was so huge that we had to make several groups," says Dragana Levicanin, project co-ordinator at Serbian NGO Philanthropy, which runs projects funded by UK charity Christian Aid.

"People want to be busy. In Serbia we have a quote: Idle brain - devil's playground.'

"Once they start with some ­everyday activities, people get back to calm thoughts, their focus is not on their current status, but rather on something they made, finished, or produced."


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The Guardian(London)


February 3, 2017 Friday 12:52 AM GMT 


'I know they'll kill me': refugee who fled PNG for Fiji arrested and deported;
Human rights group condemn deportation of Loghman Sawari, who tells refugee advocate in desperate phone call: 'This is the last time you'll hear my voice'


BYLINE: Helen Davidson


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 782 words


Loghman Sawari, the Iranian refugee who fled Papua New Guinea to Fiji, has been arrested and apparently deported back to PNG.

Sawari was sent to the adult immigration detention centre on Manus Island by the Australian government, despite being an unaccompanied minor at 17 years of age.

He was granted refugee status and released in PNG but was soon homeless in the city of Lae. He was allegedly assaulted by a guard while in detention.  

Related: Refugee sent to Manus Island as a child seeks asylum in Fiji

Last week Sawari fled PNG to Fiji with false documents, saying he faced persecution in PNG and was not safe.

In a recorded message heard by Guardian Australia, Sawari told a friend in Farsi: "I'm in a plane and they are sending me back. They arrested me and beat me."

Sawari said "dangerous people" were trying to hurt him, and he asked the friend to "tell everyone".

Photos published by Fiji One news purport to show Sawari being detained by immigration officials and taken to Nadi international airport before he had a chance to make his claim for refuge in the country.

Police & Immigration officials have detained refugee Loghman Sawari and have taken him to the Nadi International Airport. pic.twitter.com/JyGTQclLmx - Fiji One News (@FijiOneNews) February 2, 2017

An Australian-based refugee advocate said she had heard from Sawari after he boarded a flight in Nadi, believed to be bound for Port Moresby.

"He rang very quickly from the plane and the guards let him make one phone call," Janet Galbraith told Guardian Australia.

"The lawyer picked him up, they had a meeting booked with immigration to present his refugee claim. They were driving to Suva when they were possibly stopped by police. It sounds like a very over-the-top reaction. They grabbed him out of the car and bundled him into the police car."

Sawari's lawyer attempted to follow but couldn't keep up, Galbraith said, and by the time he reached the airport Sawari was already through to departures.

Sawari told her he'd been punched by a Fijian man.

"He said there is no humanity in the world and it's better to die in your own country. He said this is the end for me, this is the last time you'll hear my voice and I know they'll kill me," she said.

"He was really positive the first few days. He said the Fiji people were beautiful people and he felt safe and that he could contribute. But when word got out and media started printing stories in Fiji which linked refugees and Arabic people with terrorism, that he'd entered illegally, things started to get a lot harder."

In one Fijian news report which aired on Thursday prior to the arrest, Sawari's lawyer said his client was banking on the kindness of Fijians.

"Fiji is a signatory to the UN convention on refugees and it has been since 1972," Aman Ravindra-Singh told Fiji One News.

"I am quite certain the Fiijian government would be looking at its obligations under the convention. We are hoping for a positive result and I am quite certain the government would want to show it respects human rights."

Amnesty International condemned Friday's arrest.

"Loghman is a young man who fled persecution in Iran. He has been found to be a refugee. Australia didn't respect his rights, and now Fiji is failing to do so," said Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International's Asia Pacific researcher.

"He came to Fiji seeking protection. He is entitled to a fair assessment of his claim. That process must run its course. At a time when the US and Australia are turning their back on refugees, this is a time for Fiji to show that it is different."

Related: White House suggests US may still accept Australia refugees despite clash

Sawari did not immediately seek asylum when he arrived in Fiji but was working with a human rights lawyer, Aman Ravindra-Singh, and Fiji's human rights and anti-discrimination commission.

"I told my story to them and they wanted to help me," he told Guardian Australia on Monday. "They said, 'What we can do, we will do for you.' The people here have made me feel safe. I was never, not for one day, safe in PNG."

He said he didn't feel safe in PNG or Australia, and he feared they would come and get him and take him back.

Human Rights Watch Australia Director Elaine Pearson said Sawari's deportation from Fiji was a "blatant violation of the refugee convention".

"Under the convention, Sawari has a right to file a claim for asylum which did not happen - each case is then determined on its merits. Whether Loghman entered the country legally or not is irrelevant," Pearson said.

"So long as Australia keeps flouting its international obligations to asylum seekers and refugees, it will give a green light to other countries in the region to do the same."


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Scotsman


February 18, 2017 Saturday


Jane Bradley: Travelling with trepidation on return to Serbia


BYLINE: Jane Bradley


LENGTH: 1002 words


One year on from her last visit to the scene of a refugee crisis, Jane Bradley is braced to witness a situation that has deteriorated significantly

This time tomorrow, I will be on my way to Serbia.

It is almost exactly a year since my last visit there, when I was sent to report on the refugees making their way through what is known as the Western Balkans route.

When I went last year, I did not know what to expect - but I was pleasantly surprised. Conditions were obviously not great, but the situation was a lot better than I had feared. 

This year, I know things have changed dramatically - and very much for the worse.

I am bracing myself for what we might find there tomorrow.

Last February, the refugees were very much in transit through Serbia. Many of them had endured gruelling and treacherous journeys from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq, and had walked across Turkey and into Macedonia. Many of them had survived terrifying boat rides in tiny rubber dinghies captained by people smugglers. But once they reached Europe, the beginnings of what was a fairly slick transportation system to Germany kicked in.

Travelling by a specially-chartered bus or train, they moved through Macedonia, stopping briefly - sometimes overnight - at the Serbian border, where a well-organised group of international aid agencies handed out a clean set of clothes, blankets and a warm meal before officials checked their papers. The youngsters had a place to play and the mothers of young children had somewhere quiet to feed at the "child friendly spaces" set up in the one-stop centres on the borders.

After that they would, perhaps after spending a night in specially-created dormitories, board another train and go onwards to the north of Serbia, where the same would happen again and they would continue their onward journey through Croatia to Germany, where they would be placed in refugee camps and begin the process of claiming asylum.

It was, at times, unimaginably frustrating for them as they queued at stations, toddlers crying at their feet, with little idea of when exactly they would be moved on - although they displayed only the utmost patience and calmness.

Many of the refugees were exhausted. I met one family ranging in age from a one-year-old baby to a grandmother in her 90s - all of whom had travelled on foot across Turkey together.

Bizarrely, there was a nominal fee for the bus and train services, meaning that refugees who had been unable to bring money with them when they fled persecution in their homelands had an extra problem to deal with.

Heartbreakingly, many of them had no idea if they would be able to find - and reunite with - their families who were already living in camps in Germany. Some appeared to have no idea how big Germany was, or how many different camps their relatives could have been placed in. I was at a loss to reassure them.

But, sad though it was to see on an individual basis, the system, relatively speaking, worked.

Most had hopes of a future once they reached Germany, The children harboured ambitions to start school: to study to be architects, or doctors. Their parents could see a glimmer of hope of a normal life once more. Maybe not right now, maybe not that year - but in the foreseeable future.

Then a couple of weeks after my visit, the Macedonian and Croatian governments closed their borders. The Western Balkans route was shut. The refugees could no longer travel through their countries, they said.

Those already on their way through Serbia were stuck. Many of those who were there at that moment are still trapped, living long-term in camps which were designed to house groups of refugees for not more than a night or two.

Other sites, such as an army barracks in Belgrade, have sprung up to house more refugees, with over a hundred estimated to be travelling to the Serbian capital every day.

People who have volunteered out there over the winter have told me that the conditions are horrific.

A volunteer working with aid from Edinburgh-based charity Re-Act Scotland recently recounted stories of families living in a disused school in the north of Serbia, burning anything they could get their hands on in toxic metal drums which had previously contained chemicals - just to survive the freexing temperatures.

UNHCR, the United Nations's refugee arm, believes there are around 7,000 refugees now in Serbia. As well as those who were trapped when the borders closed, others have come into the country through Bulgaria, and have been unable to move on.

Pictures I have seen from the country in recent months, as the temperatures plummeted to minus sixteen Celcius, are like nothing anyone could have ever imagined - just two short years ago - would be witnessed in Europe.

Lines of refugees, draped in just thin grey blankets, stand outside in the snow to queue for a meagre bowl of soup. The scenes are, to be quite frank, reminiscient of the Holocaust.

The refugees who are in the asylum system are mainly in camps, albeit with very basic facilities.

However others, whether they have slipped through the official net or who cannot find a space in a camp, are suffering even worse conditions.

In Belgrade, around 2,000 people are believed to be living in an abandoned warehouse, close to the main train station - a building with no heating, where the biting wind, snow and sleet whistles in through the broken windows.

Aid organisations have described the situation as not just a refugee situation, but a long-term crisis of thousands of permanently homeless people with no future and no hope.

Tomorrow, I will be travelling with trepedation. I am expecting to be horrified by what I will see. I hope my reporting - backed by charity Christian Aid, which will be on hand to show me the invaluable work that aid agencies are doing all over Europe - helps to explain to people the horror of what is happening on our doorsteps.

But, however difficult the next week may be, unlike the refugees, I am lucky. I can leave again. They have no idea when - or even if - they ever can.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Panic at the borders: Seven U.S-bound migrants stopped in Cairo and two refugees detained at JFK as Trump immigration ban takes effect while top firms like Google scramble to get Middle Eastern workers back into U.S. 


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 714 words



Visa, green card holders and refugees have already been blocked from getting on flights to the United States just hours after Trump signed an executive order introducing his tough new immigration bans. 

Those who were already in the air flying when Trump's executive order came into effect on Friday were stopped and detained when they landed in the U.S.

Others trying to board flights from countries listed on the order were banned from getting on planes bound for America. 

Department of Homeland Security had issued a directive at 4.30pm enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and some visa holders.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night.

It comes as Google called on its employees who may be affected by the immigration order to return to the U.S. immediately fearing they may be banned from re-entering the country. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

The order also puts a 120 ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice.

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with.  

It has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.

Lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday night were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning, The New York Times  reports. 

One of Iraqis detained, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, has been working in Iraq on behalf of the U.S. government for 10 years. The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son. 

Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.    

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.'


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The Daily Telegraph (London)


January 28, 2017 Saturday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


The damage Isil terrorists have done in Europe has to be a warning to us;
May's mission


BYLINE: James Jay Carafano


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4,5


LENGTH: 547 words


DONALD TRUMP is losing the war of words. In bombast, fear-mongering and shading the truth, his critics are far outdistancing him.

Consider the arena of anti-terrorism. The new administration reportedly will announce new policies that will pause refugee admissions, strengthen the vetting of refugees, and further limit visas issued to citizens of some Middle Eastern countries. 

Even though the policies are not yet out, the "Thump Trump" crowd is piling in. Racist! Xenophobic! Irrational! But when people criticise, the facts tend to get left behind.

I know the facts - at least, most of them. I worked in the Trump transition team covering both foreign and homeland security policy. Having signed a confidentiality agreement, I can't share what we did. But it is still possible to sketch the outlines of where the administration is going.

What's driving visa and refugee policies changes isn't racism or any of the other scurrilous motives falsely assigned. What's dictating the changes is the facts on the ground.

Over the past six years, tens of thousands of foreign fighters from all over the world flooded into Syria/Iraq. Now, as Isil retreats, many of them will disperse to other nations to attempt further terrorist acts, including the US.

Thus far, the vast majority of Islamist terror plots and attacks in the US have been homegrown.

We must continue to take this threat seriously. But, the Trump administration also intends to stay a step ahead of the enemy. These new measures are designed to tackle the next threat: a stream of returning Islamist fighters.

We've already seen them launch attacks in Europe - even though the EU has very strict visa rules for the countries of concern. The current level of scrutiny from the US is comparable. But the attacks suggest that level of scrutiny is insufficient.

As of Jan 20, the Trump administration became responsible for preventing the next Brussels or Bataclan on US soil. If something happens on their watch, arguing that "we just did what the last guys did" won't be an acceptable defence. They have an obligation to exercise due diligence, assess existing security processes and make sure they are adequate to counter emerging threats.

Viewed in that light, neither of the anticipated changes regarding refugees is unreasonable.

And, yes, a temporary pause could mean additional hardships for legitimate refugees. But it already takes about two years to process, screen and bring a refugee to the US; a few months more is not unreasonable.

Beyond that, it is very clear that bringing refugees to the US will not solve the global refugee crisis. For one, it is inefficient. By some estimates, for the cost of bringing one refugee to the US, Americans could support 10 or more in their local region. Indeed, the US could not possibly absorb enough refugees to take care of the global challenge. A change in US policy on vetting will have scant overall impact.

We may look back and find that Trump's policies and Obama's look more alike than different, and that what Europe is doing is comparable. The question then will be: "What was all the furore about?" The answer will have more to do with the war of words than the war on terrorism.

James Jay Carafano is a vice-president of The Heritage Foundation, a Washington DC-based think-tank.


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FinancialWire


February 28, 2017 Tuesday


Minister Wharton reinforces UK support for refugees in Uganda


LENGTH: 524 words


LONDON, United Kingdom -- During the week that famine has been declared in some parts of South Sudan, Minister Wharton saw the life-saving impact of UK aid in Uganda when he visited a centre where refugees are registered and longer term refugee settlements near the border with South Sudan. Uganda now hosts over one million refugees, with the vast majority from South Sudan. 



With five million people in neighbouring South Sudan facing the threat of going without enough food and almost 2,400 people every day being forced to flee their homes from devastating conflict and cross the border into Uganda, the UK's support is getting urgently needed food, water and medicine to those in desperate need.

Minister Wharton met with women and children at Impevi refugee centre and Rhino settlement area in Northern Uganda, who have been displaced by the horrors of war and sexual violence. He heard about the challenges of getting life-saving humanitarian aid to those who need it.

In 2016, the UK's support to refugees in Uganda has provided:

- food for 650,000 people including 45,000 children

- shelter for 56,250 people

- blankets, water containers and sanitary towels for 64,000 people and

- vaccinated 210,000 children.

International Development Minister James Wharton said:

"South Sudan faces an urgent and severe humanitarian crisis with almost half the population in desperate need, which impacts on the whole region. The first famine for six years has now been declared and the threat of starvation and ongoing violence is forcing over one million people to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries like Uganda.

"Uganda is now home to more refugees than any other country in Africa, and I was proud to see first hand that lives are being saved every day with the UK's support. Alongside this, Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee policies in the world, where refugees are given land, jobs and integrated into communities, giving people fleeing conflict hope for the future.

"The UK will continue to play a leading role in helping encourage the longer-term stability of both South Sudan, Uganda and the broader region."

Minister Wharton also met with British businesses in Uganda and the Ugandan Minister for Trade Amelia Kyambadde to discuss further trade and investment opportunities which will boost economic development and help the poorest stand on their own two feet, while also benefiting UK companies.

As set out in DFID's Economic Development Strategy, UK support is helping Uganda and other countries industrialise faster, trade more and create new and productive jobs for its growing young population.

On a trip to a local family planning clinic in Kanyogoga, a settlement in Kampala, the Minister met people who are benefiting from a UK-aid supported programme that is increasing access to quality family planning services in Uganda, where half of the population of is under 15 and women have, on average, six children. Family planning is an integral part of planning for Uganda's future.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Department for International Development (DFID).



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to 'ship the next Boston bombers' to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1048 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the allied leaders in just 25 minutes.

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.  

Mr Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island when the pair spoke on Sunday morning Australia time, Saturday night Washington time. 

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore in Australian-funded detention centres 

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

The Post also reported the president told Mr Turnbull it was his 'intention' to honour the refugee agreement.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal.

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull said on Thursday that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that Mr Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 11, 2017 Tuesday 6:49 PM GMT 


Hundreds of refugees unaccounted for after fire destroys Dunkirk camp;
Unaccompanied minors,many with family ties in the UK,now 'scattered around'northern France, volunteers warn


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 1037 words


Hundreds of refugees who had been living in the Dunkirk refugee camp are said to be unaccounted for, including several groups of unaccompanied minors, after a fire ravaged the encampment in northern France.

Charities have warned that while most refugees in the camp are now in three local gymnasiums under the orders of the local authority, several hundred have left the Dunkirk area and are thought to have made their way to Calais.

As many as 1,600 refugees were in the camp when the blaze broke out on Monday evening, according to Grande-Synthe Mayor Damien Carême and prefect Michel Lalande, the top government official for the region. Three mobile police units were deployed in the area to head off tensions prompted by the camp's demise, the government said in a statement. 

Mr Lalande said about 1,500 people, including hundreds of children, had to be evacuated, and that while up to 300 people had already been taken to makeshift shelters, others had simply run away.

Read more

Fire destroys French migrant camp after fight involving 150 refugees

It's ironic that Boris Johnson just called Lebanon a 'moral example'

Child refugees continue to be exploited as they try to reach safety

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

Volunteers told

The Independent

on Tuesday that several hundred people were walking on foot to Calais from the Dunkirk site, among them groups of children.

Annie Gavrilescu from charity Help Refugees told

The Independent

: "There are a few hundred refugees somewhere between Calais and Dunkirk, with a few groups of mainly kids, making their way to Calais after what happened. We don't know exactly how many. We're trying to find these people and offer them food and blankets.

"For hours after the fire broke out it seemed the authorities just didn't know what to do, and then they opened three gymnasiums that are not being used at the moment - but that's not a permanent solution and it isn't clear how long people will be allowed to remain there.

"The camp was meant to stay open until September, but now there appear to be no plans to rebuild. We really don't know what's on the cards. The local authority must provide long term solutions for those who lost everything in the fire, as the initial tensions themselves seemed to be about a shortage of accommodation available in the camp.

"We've set up anemergency fundto help them respond to the situation as quickly and effectively as possible, but the French authorities need to create an appropriate solution for these people. It's now more urgent than ever."

Ms Gavrilescu added that unaccompanied minors who were living in the camp are a primary concern, particularly as some already appear to be going off the radar. While local authorities have said there are only about 10 unaccompanied minors, charities have put the number at more than 100.

Read more

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

"The unaccompanied minors are a particular concern," she said. "We have received some reports that some lone children are being turned away from the family gymnasium, and faced with the choice of either staying with adult men or wander the streets. Some are making their way to Calais, where nothing is available to them.

"The children with family in the UK shouldn't have been in the camp anyway. They have documented family links, but because the family reunification process isn't working, they ended up in the camp and stayed there for much too long."

Michael McHugh, from the Refugee Youth Service, said it was concerning that there was no accommodation designated for unaccompanied minors, and that children were subsequently sharing small spaces with potentially dangerous adults.

"There's no separate accommodation for minors. One gymnasium is mainly families, another majority Kurds and another that is Afghans. But they don't seem to have any age-appropriate for unaccompanied minors. Housing unaccompanied minors in gymnasiums with adults, without safeguarding in place is not ideal and is not good practice," he told

The Independent.

"We're now in a situation where individuals who have potentially been involved in this violence are in the same space as people who are victims of it.

Fire ravages Dunkirk refugee camp in northern France

"One unaccompanied minor was turned away from a centre because he was told he was not with a family and it was for families only. There is a real lack of child-focused response to this. Because the lone children are incredibly vulnerable, and this is a crisis within a crisis and people tend to wander off.

"What is the plan? Are we to move children back into the gymnasium for a few days only to put them back into a camp, even though 80 per cent of them do have family in the UK that we're aware of?"

Last month the French authorities said the camp would be dismantled because of growing violence between those living there. Police were regularly being called to deal with occupants of the camp trying to stop traffic on the main road nearby so they could board lorries on their way to the UK.

Charities are now liaisingwith French authorities to ensure unaccompanied children are offered safety, and calling on the UK Government to immediately transfer 80 children they had identified in the camp as having relatives in the UK and the legal right to be safely and legally transferred.

Safe Passage, which has been working in the camp in partnership with the Dunkirk Legal Centre and Help Refugees, has sent the list of 80 Dublin eligible children to the UK Home Office, and will be sharing that list with their French counterparts.

Currently no arrangements have been made by French or UK authorities for the safe accommodation of unaccompanied children from the Dunkirk camp, leaving the children at real risk of disappearing in the chaos, the charity said.

Rabbi Janet Darley, spokesperson for Safe Passage said: "The children Safe Passage are working with in Dunkirk should never have been in the camp in the first place; they have a moral and a legal right to be with their relatives in the UK.

"The Government needs to learn the lessons of the Calais camp and the fire in Dunkirk and put a fully functioning family reunion system in place between France and the UK."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 6, 2017 Monday 11:34 AM GMT 


Isis pay human traffickers for refugee children in 'desperate' attempt to attract more recruits;
Isis is able to effectively recruit refugee children by providing money or food, think-tankreport finds


BYLINE: Samuel Osborne


SECTION: MIDDLE EAST


LENGTH: 525 words


Isis is paying the smugglers' fees for child refugees in a "desperate" attempt to attract more recruits, a think-tank has warned.

The report, published by the Quilliam Foundation, says the terror group is exploiting theshort-term grievances of refugees to recruit children, who are seen as easier to indoctrinate. 

From there, they can be sent abroad to commit terror attacksor can be used as frontline soldiers in the "caliphate".

Girls are also targeted as they can be used to raise and indoctrinate a new generation of fighters.

Isis 'teaching children how to kill and make bombs'

Quilliam's report says Isis are able to effectively recruit refugee children by providing money or food.

Nikita Malik, a senior researcher at Quilliam and the co-author of the report, told

The Independent

: "That's actually incredibly effective when a young person has been separated from their family and they're just trying to get by day to day. Isis are able to fill those basic services."

An analysis of the group's propaganda suggests an "overwhelming" obsession with youth and young people, Ms Malik added.

Calls from fighters urging refugees to wage jihad were the most dominant propaganda messages shared online, while others related to "negative grievances," or the bad things that would happen to those who left the so-called Islamic State.

Read more

Isis threatens to kill 350,000 children if families try to leave Mosul

Record number of children killed in Afghanistan as Isis expands

Hundreds of suspected Isis fighters arrested

US-backed Syrian forces announce new phase in battle for Raqqa

Isis hails Trump's Muslim immigration restrictions as a 'blessed ban'

Trump signs order calling for a plan to defeat Isis within 30 days

Quilliamidentified severalareas of "vulnerabilities" where refugees and children are susceptible to recruitment.

They said Isis is recruiting in Lebanese and Jordanian refugee camps andpaying up to £800 to those who are willing to join them.

The report also found the group has been paying the smuggler's fees for refugees wanting to enter Europe via the eastern Mediterranean, and offering to waive the smugglers' fee for passage towards the Mediterranean coast for those willing to join.

"Isis is clearly aware of the value of these refugee routes for the purposes of recruitment and for exporting their operatives into Europe," the report states.

FindTheData.org | Graphiq

Ms Malik also said the fact Isis is targeting child refugees and their use of negative propaganda maysuggest "some element of desperation" as the group scrambles to find more recruits.

She said when the terror group is in a position of strength, their messages arepositive, with a focus on education and schools, in an attempt to show potential recruits they have proper state infrastructure.

However, when the group is under threat, "their propaganda tends to be more violent," Ms Malik said."The level of negative grievances we've seen in this propaganda is incredibly high.

"It could be some element of desperation to show bad things are happening and as a result they need more recruits."


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Express Online


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 8:55 AM GMT 


'Asylum seekers MUST NOT choose EU nation to apply in' Swedish MEP leads migration reform


BYLINE: Belinda Robinson


LENGTH: 1032 words


DEMANDS for major reform of the European Union's asylum procedures have been made as the continent buckles under the strain of the migrant crisis.

Getty

Swedish Liberal MEP, Cecilia Wikström has launched proposals to reform the EU's asylum procedure

Swedish Liberal MEP, Cecilia Wikström who is in charge of making changes, said an overhaul was necessary as Europe enters a "rapidly changing world", where it must deal with the influx of millions of people. 

And she said that the United Kingdom's vote to leave the EU had been a "wake-up call for all of us who believe in the European project and who see the benefits of finding common solutions to common challenges".

Ms Wikstrom wants to create a system which means asylum seekers are registered on arrival in the EU.

Related articles UK faces 'NIGHTMARE' of registering EU migrants post-Brexit Britons could be PHOTOGRAPHED and FINGERPRINTED at Europe border

Such a move would mean Brussels doing away with the current procedure which sees the first country refugees arrive in responsible for any asylum claim.

This, she believes, would remove the incentive for refugees to attempt to travel across the bloc to their country of choice, she said, and see the population fairly shared across the bloc.

The European Commission announced the plan at a press conference at 10am on March 7.

At present, the Dublin Regulation number 604/2013 decides which nation is responsible for processing a refugee's asylum claim.

Getty

One million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe in 2015 - many by boat

But it has been problematic as asylum seekers know the rules and often choose where they want to live before they travel.

Ms Windstorm now wants EU member states to share responsibility for taking in refugees.

The MEP, who is tasked with leading the proposals through the European Parliament, said: "A distribution scale is being drawn up based on GDP and population, in which every country's share of the responsibility is clear.

"When a member state fulfils its part of the joint responsibility, asylum seekers that arrive there would be distributed to other countries."

She added: "If every country in Europe with 10,000 residents had, in 2015, taken its share of responsibility for the refugees crisis they would have received 30 asylum seekers each."

EU

Ms Wikstrom has created a manifesto for changing the Dublin regulation

She added: "Problems arise in Europe when we fail to work together and share the responsibility to provide shelter for those in need."

Europe has seen a massive surge in mass migration over the past 10 years as immigrants from Syria, Iraq, and countries in Africa flock to its shores.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees one million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe up until the December 21, 2015. 

Most came by sea through ports in Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy and Spain often enduring treacherous journeys.

Related videos Swedish professor denies migrants to blame for crime in country Iain Duncan-Smith: There won't be a 'stampede' of EU migrants Sebastian Gorka: illegal immigrants in US who commit crime are gone

At the press conference, she said that with 1.5 million asylum seekers coming into the EU, it was important to even out the responsibility of each member states for looking after them.

She will present her report on March 9.

Members can make amendments until March 23. 

She explained that the Dublin regulation was introduced in 1999 by the Finnish presidency. But much of the European landscape has changed.

She now wants the proposed new laws to be "binding for all members states."

The number of migrants in just two countries - Greece and Italy - overwhelmed the system prompting the need for an overhaul.

While she does not want asylum seekers to choose where they go there will be exceptions to the rule.

If the refugees have family in one country where they want to stay then their application will be considered for that country.

But she warned: "If they abuse the system and lie, they'll be relocated. This is a deterrent for abuse."

Additionally, a discretionary clause in article 19 will allow the asylum seeker to apply to any member state but it will be up to that country whether to grant the application or not.

Getty

Brussels will scrap current procedure which sees refugees register in first country they arrive in

In her manifesto for change, Ms Wikstrom acknowledged recent terror attacks in Brussels and Paris would leave scars forever.

She said: "EU members states need to develop more comprehensive de-radicalisation programmes specifically targeting Jihadis returning from terrorist organisations in the Middle East.

"We need to make sure the member states actually fulfil their obligations."

The Swedish MEP has also outlined plans to establish a European FBI that can combat serious cross-border criminality and create a mechanism that monitors EU member states, so that no violations of freedom or basic rights occur. 

She warned: "In a globalised world not even Germany, Europe's economic engine, is strong enough to compete alone on the international arena. 

"If Europe is to remain an important and significant player on the world stage, new life has to be injected into the European project.

"The EU must be developed and democratised in the areas of freedom, security and justice and deliver a true common foreign and security policy."

She acknowledged that some member states "were hesitant to put it likely" to accept quotas for refugees in their countries.

But the European Union tradition's was to accept and look after refugees and this, she said, must continue.

There would be a transitional period of five years to allow less experienced members states to take care of refugees. BUt they would need to add 20 percent of refugees per year.

Under her plans, there would be no opt out clause of taking care of refugees. There used to be an opt out option of (EURO)250,000 - but she wants this removed.

Related articles Tory MP Lidington hits out at making Brits abroad 'bargaining chips' Bar Council head voices concern at treatment of immigrants in jails Swedish minister admits sex attack INCREASE in U-turn EU needs African migrants to help 'ageing population' - EU ambassador


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Torquay Herald Express


May 17, 2017 Wednesday


Six refugee families from war-torn Syria arrive in South Devon


SECTION: NEWS:POLITICS; Pg. 17


LENGTH: 546 words


JUST 11 refugee families from war-ravaged Syria have arrived in Devon, it has been revealed.

The UK government's Syrian vulnerable persons' resettlement programme focuses on Syrian refugees who have fled to the countries around Syria and are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  

Across Devon, councils had pledged to take in 41 refugee families, but as of the start of this month, just 11 families had arrived, and three more families had houses found for them.

In Devon, the city and district councils are responsible for housing.

Each council has taken its own decision about how many families it is aiming to house.

These are the pledges and progress:

South Hams Council has pledged to help six families, found homes for four and taken in four families.

Teignbridge Council has pledge to take in six families, has houses found for three and two families have arrived.

The shortage in the number of families arriving in Teignbridge has been blamed on the lack of housing available.

Teignbridge Council, which promised to take in six families from the Middle East, says it is continuing to play its part in bringing refugees to the UK, and it says it's working with other councils to help resettle them.

A Teignbridge District Council spokesman said: "Teignbridge District Council continues to play its part in meeting the UK government's pledge to bring some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees to the UK.

"We are working with other councils across Devon, under the UK government-funded programme, as part of a multi-agency partnership to help families to settle in and lead independent, safe and productive lives.

"Community and voluntary organisations are taking the lead in helping families get to know the local area and UK culture, make contact with faith and support groups, learn English and where possible get into work.

"Teignbridge remains committed to housing six refugee families.

"Resettled families will live in private rented properties that the landlord has leased to the council.

"Syrian refugee families do not get any preferential treatment for housing and the UK Government is providing funding for housing and other council costs.

"The rate of arrival depends on the supply of sustainable and affordable housing from private landlords.

"Should any landlord wish to discuss offering accommodation they are asked to contact housing@teignbridge.gov.uk

"For the time being, we are protecting the privacy of resettled families, though of course we are aware of public and media interest."

A Devon County Council spokesman added: "Devon has formed a partnership to help families to settle in and lead independent, safe and productive lives.

"This includes professionals from the NHS, education and social care who make sure that local services will be able to meet refugees' needs.

"Community and voluntary organisations are taking the lead in helping families get to know the local area and UK culture, make contact with faith and support groups, learn English and where possible get into work.

"Refugee families have been through great hardship and settling in a new country is a huge challenge.

"Families are entitled to privacy, so councils will not make individual announcements about the timing and locations of resettlement."


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The Guardian


February 2, 2017 Thursday 11:00 AM GMT 


Thousands of young Central Americans at risk as refugee ban halts key program;
The Central American Minors in-country refugee processing scheme, focused on helping victims of gang violence, suspended after Trump executive order


BYLINE: Nina Lakhani in Mexico City


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 812 words


The lives of thousands of young Central Americans are in danger after a rescue programme targeting victims of gang violence was suspended under Donald Trump's sweeping refugee ban.

The Central American Minors (CAM) in-country refugee processing scheme was halted after the US president's executive order froze the US refugee admissions programme for 120 days, ostensibly to beef up security checks.

CAM was launched by the Obama administration at the end of 2014 amid growing concern that children fleeing escalating violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala were being forced to risk the treacherous journey through Mexico in order to seek refuge at the US border. 

Criminal gangs, corrupt security forces and widespread impunity have fuelled rampant violence in the region, known as the Northern Triangle, where 33,000 people have been murdered in the past two years.

After Syria, whose armed conflict has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis since the second world war, the three countries are now the most deadly in the world.

Those affected by last week's executive order include teenagers threatened with death after witnessing gang killings and others fleeing forced recruitment by crime factions. Most are virtual prisoners inside their homes, having abandoned school and work as a result of the threats and beatings.

Related: Central America's rampant violence fuels an invisible refugee crisis

"Every extra day that passes is another day that these youngsters have managed to stay alive. The situation is very dramatic. Some are so scared to go out that they're not getting enough sunlight," said Vinicio Sandoval of GMIES, a group working with the victims in San Salvador.

Trump has frequently berated Mexico for what he says is a failure to crack down on immigration, but he has so far failed to mention Central America, the starting point for most migrants who reach the southern US border.

The unfolding humanitarian disaster in Central America has forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the past few years, but has failed to attract anything like the global attention given to the refugee crisis in Europe.

A surge in unaccompanied children, especially young teenagers fleeing dangers such as forced gang recruitment, sexual slavery and extrajudicial killings, at the US border was described as a humanitarian crisis by Barack Obama in June 2014.

The response was largely punitive: millions of dollars were funnelled to Mexico to fund efforts to detain and deport Central Americans before they could reach the US. Almost 80,000 children have been detained by Mexican immigration agents in the past two years; another 100,000 have survived people traffickers, corrupt officials and kidnappers to make it to the US border.

Amid criticism from human rights groups, CAM was introduced to provide a safe way for selected victims under 21 to enter the country and reunify them with parents already legally resident in the US.

So far, 1,800 people have been allowed into the US as refugees or parolees - a lower level of protection - including some infants.

The vast majority are from El Salvador, where murder rates have surged to civil war levels in the past two years. In 2014 and 2015, at least 60,000 children left the country or dropped out of school because of violence, according to education ministry figures. El Salvador has a population of six million.

The refugee ban means as many as 9,000 youngsters whose CAM applications are currently under consideration, or who have been accepted but are awaiting permission to travel to the US, now find themselves in legal limbo.

Trump's blanket ban triggered widespread condemnation, with protests erupting in cities across the world. As well as singling out seven mainly Muslim countries, Trump's far-reaching directive also cut by more than half the annual cap of refugees to be accepted by the US, from 110,000 to 50,000.

Yet activists say refugees seeking asylum in the US are already subject to stringent security assessments.

"Entering the US as a refugee is the most difficult way of entering this country - the process can take up to 36 months and [already] involves screenings from 12 to 15 agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and CIA," said Jennifer Sime, head of US programmes at the International Rescue Committee, which helps resettle refugees.

Once the programme reopens, there could be further delays depending on what additional security clearances are imposed.

Wendy Young, president of Kind (Kids in Need of Defense), which works with unaccompanied child migrants and refugees in the US, said: "These children need our protection. They are fleeing from horrific gang and narco-related violence which their governments cannot control. They're not a terrorism risk, and the irony is that they're already the most vetted of all migrants."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 11, 2017 Saturday 5:24 PM GMT 


Refugee turned baroness calls on government to help child refugees after Dubs Amendment scrapped;
'Britain is not Farage, it's people who do amazing things'


BYLINE: Will Worley


SECTION: HOME NEWS


LENGTH: 578 words


A refugee who went onto advise a foreign minister has urged the government to live up to the British tradition of "giving refuge to the most vulnerable people".

Baroness Arminka Helic, 48, fled to the UK from war torn Bosnia when she was 23, but went onto study at the London School of Economics and work for William Hague when he was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

She is best known for being thedriving influence behind Mr Hague's Global Sexual Violence initiative, along withHollywood actress Angelina Jolie. 

The Baroness, made a peer by David Cameron, was speaking in light of thegovernment's decision to scrap the Dubs Amendment, designed to provide sanctuary to child refugees.

While 3,000 children were supposed to have benefited from the scheme, only 350 have been helped by the British government.

Yvette

Cooper calls backtrack on Dubs amendment 'shameful'

The government's decision was widely criticised and Baroness Helic has now added her voice to the chorus.

"Britain has a long and proud history of giving refuge to the most vulnerable people," she told

The Times

. "I hope that our government will find a way to live up to that ideal, even amid current challenges.

Read more

Archbishop of Canterbury accuses May of sentencing refugees to death

Council leaders condemn Government closure of child refugee scheme

Government blocks entry to disabled child refugees

Full list of MPs who voted against Dubs Amendment for child refugees

Charities unite in anger as government quietly scraps refugee promise

"Of course we have to ensure that the local authorities have the means of meeting this task ... but as they say, where there is a will there's a way. I hope this is not the end of it and that there is more we can do."

The government justified its closure of the Dubs Amendment by saying it was "incentivising" migration. Home Secretary Amber Rudd told MPs the scheme was "a magnet for people traffickers".

Alack of funding and implementation problems in local authorities has also been cited by the government as a reason to end the scheme, though some councils have argued against this.

A total of 294 politicians voted against the Dubs Amendment last week. Five Conservative MPs rebelled, including Will Quincy, who said he was "sad and disappointed" by the response.

Another, Dr Tania Mathias, suggested in the Commons that "Britain should be leading the way, there should be more resources for local authorities". She also called for the creation of a Minister for Refugees.

Baroness Helic has extensive personal experience with war. She came to the UK after ethnic cleansing in her native country targeted Muslim communities in Bosnia, of which she was a member.

"People were being killed, women were separated and they were being put into camps," she told the

Times

. "It was too dangerous so my sisters, their children and my mother fled to Croatia."

Her family had to walk to the border and cross it on a raft, all while trying to avoid an artillery barrage. After brief respite in Croatia, the country also became embroiled in conflict and Baroness Helic made her way to England with the help of a family she had worked for as an au pair.

One of the family, Lady Jane Nott, put a ticket to England inside a book she asked for.

Recalling the episode, Baroness Helic said: "That is what I want to explain to people about this country, Britain is not Farage, it's Jane. People who do amazing things."


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Scottish Mail on Sunday


March 26, 2017  
Edition 2;
Scotland


Do refugees from Syria really need recycling lessons?;
Even families supposedly benef iting from green scheme think it's a waste of money


BYLINE: Mark Howarth


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6


LENGTH: 576 words


SYRIAN refugees seeking sanctuary in Scotland are to be given taxpayer-funded lessons in recycling.

In a move branded both unnecessary and disgraceful, refugees who have fled their war-torn country and been given new homes in Edinburgh will also be given advice on cutting carbon emissions.

At present, 153 Syrian refugees live in Scotland's capital. Many cannot read or write in English and need help with their education. Instead, £88,000 of taxpayers' money is being spent on telling them how switching off lights and putting rubbish in the right bin can help save the planet. 

They will also be shown how to get hold of second-hand clothes and materials otherwise destined for landfill dumps - so-called upcycling.

The UK has committed to housing 20,000 refugees from the civil war in Syria and around 1,200 have been resettled in Scotland since 2015. In all, 29 of Scotland's 32 councils have taken in families with Home Office funding.

Last night, the Syrian Arab Association of Scotland, which has been involved in the resettlement programme, said the £88,000 would be better spent teaching refugees how to read and write.

Founder Zaida al-Aref said: 'The health, housing and benefits side of things is covered, but they cannot stay on benefits long-term - they need to build independent lives.

'We met with Edinburgh city council and said the priority, particularly for the younger ones, should be to fix their education and help them into volunteer work to begin with.

Then they can go to university or get a proper job and do well for themselves and Scottish society, instead of putting them on benefits all their life.

'Many of these refugees are not educated. They cannot even read and write in Arabic, let alone English, so this is the biggest issue, rather than teaching them to save electricity and recycling.' A report by the Scottish Refugee Council last year identified the priorities for those who have been given permisto 'Making carrier bags out of old T-shirts' sion to start new lives here.

They need help to access welfare, housing and employment, treatment for long-term physical or mental conditions and lessons in English.

But the Scottish Government has instead given a grant of £88,245 from its Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) to The Welcoming Association charity in Edinburgh for a 'Welcoming A Greener Future project to help the Syrian refugee community in Edinburgh reduce carbon emissions'. Refugees will be 'developing skills and understanding in relation to home energy efficiency and the reuse and recycling of household items'. Project activities include home energy efficiency advice, a reuse programme for clothes, furniture and electrical items plus developing a wider understanding of climate change. In 2015 and 2016, the charity was handed CCF grants totalling £257,036 for similar initiatives for migrants from various backgrounds in Edinburgh. Activities included workshops showing how to make 'carrier bags out of old T-shirts', 'juice carton wallets' and 'upcycled Christmas decorations'.

Eben Wilson, director of the Centre for Democratic Prosperity think-tank, said: 'What on earth is the value of spending taxpayers' money on teaching newly-arrived refugees about recycling?' The Welcoming Association did not respond to requests for comment. A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'Scotland is making huge progress cutting emissions and the CCF supports projects to inspire people to care about the problem of climate change.'


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GRAPHIC: SAFE HAVEN: A Syrian mother and her child arriving in Scotland


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birminghammail.co.uk


February 17, 2017 Friday 9:51 AM GMT 


Birmingham ready to take 79 lone child refugees despite 'scandalous' Government u-turn;
Government suggested councils had reached the limit for lone child refugees after cutting Dubs scheme, but Birmingham says it has capacity for more.


BYLINE: By Neil Elkes


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 532 words


Birmingham is ready and able to offer shelter to 79 unaccompanied child refugees under the famous Lord Dubs scheme but is being prevented by a "scandalous" Government U-turn it has been claimed. 

Council Labour equalities boss Waseem Zaffar said the city is waiting to provide help and support to unaccompanied youngsters who have made the dangerous trip to Europe - particularly the many currently struggling in the Greek islands.

Last year the Government, following theLord Dubs amendmentto the Immigration Act, agreed to take in 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children.

But last week it quietly dropped the scheme after taking only 350, saying councils had not got the capacity to take in any more. Lord Alf Dubs was famously a Jewish child refugee who fled persecution in Nazi Germany.

The decision to stop the scheme has been condemned by politicians of all parties and aid charities who accused the Government of turning its back on vulnerable children to whom it had promised help and leaving them at risk of abuse and exploitation by traffickers.

Sandwell Council has slammed the door on Syrian refugees

Coun Zaffar said that Birmingham currently has 119 unaccompanied refugee children in its care - but only a handful have come through the Dubs scheme. The majority were trafficked into the city.

The city has capacity for 198 - a number which is worked out as 0.07 per cent of the city's total child population and will still be able to look after child refugees arriving through routes other than the Dubs scheme.

He said: "We are disappointed with the position the Government has taken in saying that local authorities haven't been putting themselves forward. Birmingham is more than willing to work with Government on this.

"To stop the scheme at just 350 is disgraceful. It's scandalous. It goes against public opinion and the opinion of Parliament."

Last week a Government spokesman said: "We are working with councils, but we have to recognise that lots of these children who are transferred under this scheme have very pressing and difficult needs and there is a limit to the capacity for local authorities to provide that level of care."

The Government has beencriticised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Dubs, campaign groups and some of its own MPs over the decision.

Opinion: UK should be a country of sanctuary for child refugees

In a further update to the council, which has City Of Sanctuary status, Coun Zaffar (East Handsworth and Lozells) confirmed that the city is on course to meet its commitment to take 500 Syrian refugees under the Government-funded Syrian Vulnerable Person Relocation Scheme by 2020.

So far 50 have arrived - after their refugee status was confirmed at UN run camps in Turkey, the Lebanon and Jordan.

Meet the Syrian family looking forward to first Christmas in Birmingham

The council has, however, raised concerns over the handling of asylum seekers in the region and has formally objected to a building, which has not been disclosed in public, being earmarked by contractor G4S as a based for asylum seekers.

Coun Zaffar said of the location chosen: "I wouldn't put my family in there and wouldn't expect anyone else to go there."

Birmingham - City of Sanctuary


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The Guardian(London)


April 17, 2017 Monday 7:00 AM GMT 


Vanessa Redgrave makes directorial debut with film about refugee crisis;
Documentary titled Sea Sorrow draws parallels between Shakespeare's Tempest and the tragic story of Syrian three-year-old Alan Kurdi


BYLINE: Dalya Alberge


SECTION: FILM; Version:1


LENGTH: 672 words


The sight of a Syrian toddler's lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach was among the horrors that drove Vanessa Redgrave to make her directorial debut with a feature documentary about the refugee crisis, she said.

The 80-year-old Oscar-winning actor and political activist, has long campaigned for refugees, but the shocking images of three-year-old Alan Kurdi made her realise she needed to do more.

Determined to raise awareness of the plight of people fleeing persecution and poverty, death and destruction, she directed a documentary, titled Sea Sorrow, funding it herself.  

"I just felt I must," she told the Guardian.

Recalling tragic stories told by refugees and the squalid conditions in which they live, she asked: "Who else would have directed what I was seeing?"

Last week, she received the accolade of having the documentary selected for a "special screening" at next month's Cannes film festival.

Related: Stories of 2015: how Alan Kurdi's death changed the world

The international exposure of a screening on the French Riviera is crucial as the refugee crisis intensifies, Redgrave believes. She hopes that it will make us "welcome refugees", warning that we stand to lose our humanity otherwise.

Sea Sorrow focusses on ordinary people like an Afghan former head-mistress whom Redgrave met in Greece. "She'd had to flee... The agony was knowing that, more than likely, she would be sent back to Afghanistan. That's what's happening to refugees," she said.

Describing her documentary as "an elegy," she focussed her camera on a tent daubed with the words "help us" and on a discarded plimsoll lying in the mud and debris.

While she did not mention atrocities carried out against westerners by extremists given a safe haven as refugees, she criticised the picture painted by some parts of the media: "Clearly, there is an agenda to pounce on any negative by a refugee as proof that they're all potentially like that and they shouldn't be allowed in."

Redgrave is a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, whose Oscar-nominated performances include the lead role for Mary, Queen of Scots. She won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in the 1977 wartime drama Julia.

In making sense of the world, she has turned to Shakespeare and The Tempest, in which Prospero, the exiled rightful Duke of Milan and a magician, tells his daughter Miranda, how they escaped drowning by being put in a "rotten carcass" of a boat when she was three.

Redgrave draws parallels with three-year-old Kurdi, who drowned in 2015 : "[His] family had fled from their village of Kobani, twice besieged by Isis, hoping that a small rubber dinghy could take them across two miles of water to the Greek island of Kos where they could claim asylum. I was horrified that this baby and his mother and sister had died because they could not find a safe and legal passage."

Oscar-winning actor Ralph Fiennes appears in her documentary, reciting Prospero's words which "perfectly echo the tragedy of the drowned refugees," Redgrave explains. "Shakespeare gave us our title. 'Our sea sorrow', says Prospero."

Redgrave's son, Carlo Nero, the documentary's producer, said: "In The Tempest, these are wealthy nobility and now they're refugees stranded on an island. Shakespeare shows you that these calamities can befall anyone."

In the film, Redgrave recalls the wartime role that her parents - actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson - played in trying to secure visas for Jews fleeing the Nazis: "[They] were among artists who, as always, do their best to try and help."

"If you know the history, you're horrified by how obdurate the Chamberlain government was. Scandalous on anybody's terms and I'm afraid we're in the same situation today."

She argues that civil liberties enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights are being flouted: "European governments are not the only ones to ignore human rights conventions. However, my concern of course is European governments which include my own ... I'm deeply worried."


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 3:38 PM GMT 


US Vice President Mike Pence called Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'offensive and unconstitutional' just one year ago;
As the Governor of Indiana Mike Pence showed his horror over Trump's plans for a ban on Muslims entering America


BYLINE: By Anthony Bond


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1353 words


Donald Trump's ban on nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries has horrified many international organisations and politicians.

But it appears as though some of those closest to the new US President may also be concerned.

Before he became the Vice President of America, Mike Pence showed his horror over Trump's plans for a ban on Muslims entering America.

Writing on Twitter in December 2015 when he was Governor of Indiana, Pence wrote: "Calls to ban Muslims from entering the US are offensive and unconstitutional."

But almost exactly a week after Pence became the 48th Vice President of the US, Trump last night announced his strict new rules. 

Muslim travellers turned away from US after Donald Trump's ban as Google 'recalls overseas staff'

pence

President Trump ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

He also said no visas will be issued to nationals from seven mainly-Muslim nations of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

ban

bans

It has already raised concerns that an Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar may also be unable to attend the prestigious event.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-nominated smash hit The Salesman TRAILER

Fans of the renowned filmmaker - who won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation - now fear he will be unable to attend Hollywood's biggest night in February.

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

moore

syria

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'means Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend ceremony'

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That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's Mexico wall

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."

Have you been affected by Donald Trump's new rules for entering the US?

Call us free on 0800 282591 or emailwebnews@mirror.co.uk


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to 'ship the next Boston bombers' to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 958 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the allied leaders in just 25 minutes.

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.  

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull said on Thursday that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore in Australian-funded detention centres 

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

The US president reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island when the pair spoke on Sunday morning Australia time, Saturday night Washington time.  

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister. 

The Post also reported the president told Mr Turnbull it was his 'intention' to honour the refugee agreement.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal.

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation.

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that Mr Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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telegraph.co.uk


January 13, 2017 Friday 12:27 AM GMT 


Councils warn they do not have enough money to take in Syrian refugees


BYLINE: By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 537 words


Councils across the country are warning that they do not have enough money to take in Syrian refugees, a report has warned.

The Government has pledged to take in 20,000 refugees from the war-torn country. However, a report from MPs warns that local authorities are saying that the £8,500 they receive as a grant for every refugee they re-home does not cover the costs they put in. 

The MPs on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the Government was making "encouraging progress" on a 2015 promise to take in 20,000 vulnerable refugees from camps in and around Syria by the end of the decade. 

But it said that meeting the promise in full would be a "significant challenge" and Government procedures for evaluating its success were "too vague". 

.html-embed.component .quote.component{margin-left:0}.html-embed.component .quote.component .component-content{margin-right:16px}.quote__source, .quote__author {white-space: normal;}@media only screen and (min-width:730px){.html-embed.component .quote.component{margin-left:-60.83px}.html-embed.component .quote.component .quote__content:before{margin-left:-12px;padding-right:1px}}@media only screen and (min-width:1008px){.html-embed.component .quote.component{margin-left:-82.33px}}Some local authorities are concerned that the funding available will not be enough to cover the support and services they will need to offer refugeesPAC report

While local authorities across the UK have already made sufficient indicative pledges of support to house all 20,000 of the expected refugees, there was "confusion" about the full extent of support they were expected to provide. 

Failure to provide clarity on this issue "risks the successful delivery of the programme", the report warned. 

The MPs said: "The number of refugees in the programme is small compared to the total number of people local authorities support. 

"But some local authorities are concerned that the funding available will not be enough to cover the support and services they will need to offer refugees, particularly at a time when they face a number of other financial pressures."

The British Government said people would be taken in from camps in and around Syria Credit:  KHALIL ASHAWI/Reuters

Most do not speak English well enough to be self-sufficient in the UK, but there were warnings that the four hours of language tuition they receive during their first year "is not enough for them to properly integrate into or communicate with their local communities", the committee said. 

David Simmonds, the chairman of the Local Government Association's asylum, migration and refugee task group, said councils were "confident" their pledges would be sufficient to resettle 20,000 Syrians. 

"When called upon by government, councils responded quickly, offering their support to make sure vulnerable refugees had a safe place to call home," said Mr Simmonds. 

"The focus is now on ensuring families are well supported. 

"Councils are and will be helping some of the most vulnerable families fleeing Syria who will need access to ongoing support services to help them cope with injuries, disabilities and recover from the severe trauma they may have experienced." 

In numbers | European refugee crisis 2016


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MailOnline


June 6, 2017 Tuesday 12:09 AM GMT 


Just 11 days after ASIO boss declared 'absolutely' no link between refugees and terrorism, an African-born extremist kills one in vile plot to execute cops - so what does our top spy think NOW?


BYLINE: Stephen Johnson For Daily Mail Australia


SECTION: NEWS; Version:8


LENGTH: 517 words



 

Australia's chief spy declared there was no link between refugees and terrorism less than two weeks before a Somali-born meth addict killed a hostage in the name of IS and al-Qaeda.

Yacqub Khayre murdered one man, wounded three police officers and took a female escort hostage in a dramatic two-hour siege in a Melbourne serviced apartment.

The 29-year-old killer, who had links to banned Somali-based Islamist terror group al-Shabaab, then claimed: 'This is for IS, this is for al-Qaeda.'

Just 11 days earlier, Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation director-general Duncan Lewis made his controversial statement to a Senate hearing during a grilling by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

'I have absolutely no evidence to suggest there is a connection between refugees and terrorism,' he said.

He later clarified his comments to explain that while refugees could become terrorists, very few of them had come to the attention of ASIO.

Khayre, who moved to Australia in 1991 aged three to escape war-torn Somalia, murdered in the name of an Islamist terror group on Monday night.

His deadly siege and plot to murder police came only days after the London terror attacks that killed seven people and wounded 48 others.

IS even claimed credit for the act of terror in the upmarket Melbourne bayside suburb of Brighton.

'The attack in Melbourne, Australia was carried out by a soldier of the Islamic State in response to the call for targeting the subjects of the coalition states,' the group's Amaq news agency said.

The terrorist with a criminal past, who arrived in Australia as a refugee to live with his uncle and grandfather, had been charged and acquitted over a plot in 2009 to blow up the Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney's south-west.

However, three other men were convicted in 2011 in the Victorian Supreme Court over that plot and were sentenced to 18 years in jail, with a minimum of 13 years and six months behind bars.

Mr Lewis' comments in late May, debunking the link between refugees and terrorism, were made two days after New South Wales coroner Michael Barnes described the December 2014 Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney as an act of terror.

Man Monis, the gunman who killed cafe manager Tori Johnson, was an Iranian refugee who moved to Australia in 1996 before being granted citizenship in 2001.

Less than a year after that, IS-inspired 15-year-old western Sydney student Farhad Jabar killed accountant Curtis Cheng outside Parramatta police headquarters.

He came from an Iraqi-Kurdish background and became to Australia from Iran in 2006.

In September 2014 Numan Haider, who moved to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan as a child, was shot dead after he stabbed two counter-terrorism officers in Melbourne.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 3, 2017 Friday 6:44 PM GMT 


Charities vow to continue giving food to refugees despite Calais Mayor's ban;
Organisations in France say they are 'determined to continue their action'following mayoral ban on distributing food in former 'Jungle'zone


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:4


LENGTH: 1150 words


Refugee charities in northern France have issued a robust response to the Calais Mayor's decision to ban food distributionin a large part of the town, vowing to continue to provide aid to refugees in spite of the mayoral decree.

Seven organisations that offer support for refugees in Calais have signed a statement expressing their "determination to continue their action", stating that the reason they do this work is because the authorities "do not fulfil their own obligations in terms of law and humanity".

A decree issued

on Wednesday 

by Mayor

Natacha Bouchart

prohibits organisations from distributing aid in Dunes, a large industrial zone in Calais close to where the "Jungle" camp was located before it was demolished in October, ordering for a "ban on abusive, prolonged and repeated occupants of the industrial zone". It was not clear how such a ban would be implemented.

Read more

Mayor of Calais 'bans distribution of food to migrants'

Child refugee dies of heart attack in French accommodation centre

Hundreds of refugees return to 'secret camps' near Calais

In the joint statement - signed by L'Auberge des Migrants, Care4Calais, Help Refugees, RCK, Salam, Secours Catholique and Utopia 56 - the charities state that their aid distributions "contribute to vital needs [...] not only in terms of food, but also to supply blankets and warm clothes to avoid the possibility of death on the street".

It proceeds to state that the distributions are important because they help "ensure the safety of Calais residents and traders" and provide "an opportunity to identify medical problems, especially for minors who are victims of the cold", as well as making it possible for refugees to receive legal advice.

The statement reads: "After attempting to prevent Catholic Relief to allow the migrants present on Calais to wash, the Mayor of Calais wants to prohibit associations, on the pretext of disturbing public order, to distribute meals.

"The decree produced by the Mayor is inhuman and unworthy. The associations do this work because the State and public authorities do not fulfil their own obligations in terms of laws and humanity.

"The signatory organisations declare their determination to continue their action. We will continue our distributions."

Following the announcement of the ban, Annie Gavrilescu of Help Refugees told

The Independent:

"We're publishing this response in the least provocative way possible. We just want legal and safe places where we can continue our work.

"We don't want to create more animosity with the authorities or with the police. We are just trying to keep people fed but from a legal and safe place, which is obviously proving more and more difficult.

"The decree specifies the industrial zone, so what we're trying to do is go outside it, and trying to keep people safe outside it. But we don't know how the enforcement of this ban will take shape, so we're just evermore careful."

Asked whether she was shocked by the ban, Ms Gavrilescu said: "From a humanitarian perspective, it's obviously shocking that a mayor is trying to prevent us from feeding children.

"But from a realistic perspective, having been here a long time, the actions of this mayor are not surprising."

The ban has been issued in the area where the 'Jungle' camp used to be located (Clare Mosely)

A volunteer at the Legal Shelter, an organisation in Calais that provides legal support to refugees, told

The Independent

the mayor's order would not discourage refugees from coming to Calais.

"This will absolutely not work for stopping people from coming to Calais. They don't come thinking that they will have food from organisations. They come for other reasons than just the distribution of food. It's just an accessory.

"It's not the reason why refugees are coming to Calais, and of course they will continue to come even if there is no food distribution. There have always been people in Calais, many of them hidden without asking for any food distribution. It will never change.

"If there are police controls when there are food distributions, of course people will just hide themselves more to avoid being arrested.

"In 2015 they passed an order to stop people pitching tents in public spaces. It's the kind of decision they always try to take, just to try to make it more difficult for everyone. But in 20 years this has never worked.

"The charities will probably just move the point of distribution. If many more orders like this come into effect, we are likely to take legal action."

Sue Jex, head of UK operations for refugee support charity Care4Calais, said in a statement: "We are appalled at the ban on distributing food to refugees in Calais, which deprives the most vulnerable people - including unaccompanied minors - of the basic human right to food.

"This humanitarian crisis is far from resolved and we should not be turning our backs on those who need our support most. We would urge those in positions of authority to lift bans on food distribution, and act now to secure the lives of refugees urgently."

Reasons given for the ban in the mayoral decree include "the regular presence of individuals and groups in the industrial zone for the purposes of meal distribution to migrants" and concern that "the continued and massive occupation in the area are of the nature that they could trouble the tranquillity, health and public security".

The mayoral decree has been put up warning that distributing food is no longer permitted in the area

Ms Bouchart stated her reasoning for the ban in a press statement on Friday, saying she would "not accept" seeing the economy of Calais "damaged again".

"In recent days, a regular and massive presence of individuals has been noted in the industrial zone of Dunes due to the distribution of meals to migrants," the statement read.

"I was alerted by people who use the area, notably business bosses and people in the economic world, following tensions arising with organisations and migrants at the time of these distributions.

"As I have indicated to the director of the cabinet of the Prime Minister during a meeting on 25 January, I will not accept that our economy be damaged again, just as it is beginning to arise from serious difficulties that it confronted last year."

The Mayor went on to say that former settlements of refugees in Calais have caused "trauma" for residents of the town, and asserted that she must consequently take "necessary measures" to avoid a repeat of the situation.

"Over the months, or indeed years, everyone has been able to see all the humanity that the Calaisian population has shown despite a unique situation in France, which has been a traumatic experience for many Calaisians,"she said.

"Because we have suffered so much, because I have been fighting on behalf of industry players to defend the interests of Calais, I must take all necessary measures to prevent a repeat of a situation that has gone on for far too long."


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 2:48 AM GMT 


'My job is to defend Australia': Malcolm Turnbull doesn't deny Donald Trump unleashed an attack on the his refugee deal - before slamming the phone down in 'worst call' to a world leader


BYLINE: RACHEL EDDIE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 771 words



Malcolm Turnbull has not denied Donald Trump told him he had his 'worst call by far' with the Australian Prime Minister as well as slamming the refugee deal in his first response to explosive claims about the two leaders' first telephone conversation. 

The president accused Mr Turnbull of exporting the 'next Boston bombers' to the U.S. and hung up 25 minutes into the call, which was expected to be last for an hour, an unnamed source claimed.

The prime minister refused to comment on the  Washington Post  report and suggestions their phone conversation over the weekend was hostile.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year.

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore.

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban.

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'.

The U.S. President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.

'I'm not going to comment on these reports out of the United States about the conversation,' Mr Turnbull told a press conference from Melbourne on Thursday.

'Australians know me very well. I always stand up for Australia in every forum.'

He said it was better to leave the discussion out of the public domain.

'It's better that these things, these conversations, are conducted candidly, frankly, privately.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and every day to stand up for Australia and that's what I do.

'My business is being the Prime Minister of Australia. That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and to defend the interests of Australians.'

Mr Turnbull insisted the bond between the allied countries remained strong through the refugee deal.

'I can assure you the relationship is very strong. The fact we received the assurance that we did, the fact that it was confirmed, the very extensive engagement we have with the new administration underlines the closeness of the alliance.

'But as Australians know me, very well, I stand up for Australia in every forum - public or private.'

The U.S. president reportedly told the prime minister he'd spoken with four other leaders over the weekend - including Russian President Vladimir Putin - and 'this was the worst call by far'.

Mr Trump fumed about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take hundreds of refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, according to unnamed sources.

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told Mr Turnbull.

Mr Trump complained he was going to get killed politically and accused Australia of trying to export the 'next Boston bombers'.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America would get out of honouring the deal.

A U.S. Embassy spokesperson on Thursday confirmed President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed.

But the president later tweeted the deal was 'dumb'. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested the leaders move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation, Washington Post said.

The call was scheduled to go for about an hour, but Mr Trump ended it after 25 minutes.

The official statement about the conversation, released by the White House, told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasised the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said.

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'We discussed the importance of border security and the threat of illegal and irregular migration, and recognised that it is vital that every nation is able to control who comes across its borders,' he said.

The Saturday phone call was their first conversation since President Trump's inauguration.


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telegraph.co.uk


June 26, 2017 Monday 8:23 PM GMT 


Thousands of asylum seekers in Canada who fled Donald Trump now trapped in legal limbo


BYLINE: By Reuters


SECTION: NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 765 words


Thousands of people who fled to Canada to escape President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal migrants have become trapped in legal limbo because of an overburdened refugee system, struggling to find work, permanent housing or enrol their children in schools.

Refugee claims are taking longer to be completed than at any time in the past five years, according to previously unpublished Immigration and Refugee Board data provided to Reuters. Those wait times are set to grow longer after the IRB in April allocated 'up to half' of its 127 tribunal members to focus on old cases. The number of delayed hearings more than doubled from 2015 to 2016 and is on track to increase again this year. 

Hearings are crucial to establishing a claimant's legal status in Canada. Without that status, they struggle to convince employers to hire them or landlords to rent to them. Claimants cannot access loans or student financial aid, or update academic or professional credentials to meet Canadian standards. Canada's refugee system was struggling to process thousands of applications even before 3,500 asylum seekers began crossing the US border on foot in January. It lacks the manpower to complete security screenings for claimants and hear cases in a timely manner. Often there are not enough tribunal members to decide cases or interpreters to attend hearings, the IRB said.

Canadian police officer carries a refugee babyCredit: David Millward/The Telegraph

More than 4,500 hearings scheduled in the first four months of 2017 were cancelled, according to the IRB data.

The government is now focused on clearing a backlog of about 24,000 claimants, including people who filed claims in 2012 or earlier. That means more than 15,000 people who have filed claims so far this year, including the new arrivals from the United States, will have to wait even longer for their cases to be heard.

Asylum cases are already taking longer to finalize, on average, than at any time since Canada introduced a statutory two-month time limit in 2012. This year, it has been taking 5.6 months on average, compared to 3.6 months in 2013.

Mohamed Daud, 36, left his family and a pending refugee claim in the United States and walked into Canada in February after hearing rumors of U.S. immigration raids. Daud, originally from Somalia, had been living and working legally in Nebraska but feared he would be detained and then deported at an upcoming check-in with immigration officials.

His May 8 hearing with a Canadian refugee tribunal was cancelled three days beforehand. He has not been given a new date.

"I don't know when they will call me. I can't work. It isn't easy," said Daud. While waiting for a work permit, he gets approximately C$600 ($453) a month in government social assistance and shares a room in an apartment with six other asylum seekers.

Still, Daud doesn't regret abandoning his life in the United States.

"The worry, the fear is the same," he said.

To try to speed cases through, Canada's refugee tribunal has put people from certain war-torn countries such as Syria and Yemen on an expedited track that requires no hearings. Border agents are working overtime to address the backlog in security screenings, said Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who oversees the Canada Border Services Agency.

INDEFINITE WAIT

Asylum claimants are eligible for work permits while awaiting hearings, but employers are often reluctant to employ people with temporary social insurance numbers whose future is uncertain, refugee lawyers told Reuters.

"How do you establish yourself when your status is unknown?" said Toronto-based lawyer Aadil Mangalji.

Trudeau: I won't lecture Trump on refugees 00:50

This year is on track to be the highest year for refugee claims since at least 2011, according to government statistics.

The stresses on the Canadian system mirror those of other countries with an open door policy. In Sweden, rising financial strains involved in resettlement were partly behind a move to introduce tough asylum laws.

Honduran Raul Contreras, 19, who walked across the Quebec border in March and whose hearing has been postponed indefinitely, is staying in a government-subsidised Toronto hotel with his mother, step-father and uncle. Contreras, who spends his days at a local library or working out in the hotel gym, says he has been repeatedly rejected by landlords.

"They just said that they didn't rent places to refugee claimants," he said. "(They) said that refugees don't have jobs and probably wouldn't pay."


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Express Online


June 2, 2017 Friday 9:00 AM GMT 


Europe's refugee crisis LIVE: Latest news from Mediterranean as migrant rescue ops launch


BYLINE: Zoie O'Brien


LENGTH: 815 words


REFUGEES crossing the Mediterranean are set to arrive in their highest number this summer.

GETTY/Zoie O'Brien

Refugee rescue in the Mediterranean: Thousands flee wartorn Libya

The European Union has baffled charities, NGOs and the global community when it decided to fund and train the allegedly corrupt Libyan coastguard in a bid to put an end to perilous crossings from Africa to Italy.

After sending in its own navies to help the Libyan Government tackle people smugglers - the chaotic scenes remain as thousands of refugees are rescued daily. 

Those on the front line battle to save lives every day and have predicted there will be tens of thousands more crossing the Med, hoping to claim asylum in the EU.

According to IOM the figures have risen every year since 2013.

Europhiles like Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel have repeatedly stated their commitment to the refugee community yet have failed to find a solution to the growing crisis.

Figures in Brussels have openly been self-congratulating over the "success" in the Aegean Sea, a route which is barely used now.

In truth, thousands remain in squalid camps growing angrier because the public promises made by Ms Merkel have not come to fruition.

Under the Malta agreement the EU has now vowed to work on sending those new arrivals back to Libya, where they will be beaten, raped tortured and abused.

Reporter Zoie O'Brien has boarded the Golfo Azzurro with Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms to give an insight into the growing turmoil in the Mediterranean and their ongoing battle to save lives.

Zoie O'Brien

Those on the front line battle to save lives every day

Zoie O'Brien

Doctor onboard the Golfo Azzurro Marta Talayero will provide critical care to refugees Related articles EU plans to move external border to AFRICA to stop new migrant crisis Mediterranean migration set for rise as EU fails on promise to Libyans

6pm BST: Two Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boats  have been attached to the Golfo Azzurro to speed out to the sinking refugee boats and ferry them back to the main ship.

The rubber boats sold for thousands of pounds by the smugglers often burst into flames or sink just miles into the journey.

4.30pm BST: While the European Union works on a deal to keep migrants in Libya, new research has found evidence of an active "slave market".

Through testimonies by refugees, a new report has claimed people in the African nation are being beaten to death.

US-based Refugees International said the EU policy could intensify horrific abuses.

Zoie O'Brien

Lifejackets on deck - the ones sold by smugglers would not save the person

Zoie O'Brien

Supplies for babies onboard the ship - the youngest in the last mission was ten hours old

4.15pm BST: Previous rescue missions on the Golfo Azzurro have seen the rescue of people needing urgent medical attention.

The onboard hospital is equipped with eight beds, critical care supplies and medicine.

Almost all women rescued by the charity have been raped or attacked.

Some, enter the boat with gunshot wounds, diseases and illnesses.

4pm BST: The Golfo Azzurro is set to arrive in the search and rescue zone outside Libya in the coming hours.

Bad weather has stopped smugglers being able to send desperate refugees out to the dinghies, which they will try to reach Europe in, over the last few days.

As a result, thousands are set to launch from Libya at the weekend.

Already an estimated 1700 people have died trying to do the journey since January.

3.30pm BST: Reports are emerging of gunfights between Libyan militia and the coastguard.

Many people are expected to flee from the beaches in the next few days.

Zoie O'Brien

The Golfo Azzurro ready to set sail from Malta to Libyan waters

GETTY

Refugee rescue missions are collecting around 2,000 people every day in the Mediterranean Related articles EU scheme pays failed asylum seekers £846 each to return home Refugee opens first Syrian barbershop in Scotland

3pm BST: The Golfo Azzurro has space for 400 refugees on board, along with its 20 crew.

Proactiva Open Arms, the charity which will rescue those desperate enough to plunge themselves into the perilous waters, expects a chaotic summer.

Last year 6,000 people were rescued in 24 hours.

Now, it is believed that record will be broken.

2.30pm BST: Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms has launched another rescue mission in the Mediterranean.

The vessel, the Golfo Azzurro, will save thousands of lives this summer, it is predicted.

The EU has decided to prevent people from leaving Libya, paying £78m and training the country's coastguard.

Brussels is now widely accused of trapping people in a nation blighted by torture, rape and abuse.

NGOs like Proactiva are their only hope of survival.

Related articles Manchester attack: 'Trainee pilot' arrested in police investigation Tobias Ellwood says UK 'could have done more' to prevent Libya chaos Italian coastguard appeals for help prior to summer migrant surge


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Express Online


May 23, 2017 Tuesday 9:53 AM GMT 


US Homeland Security begins 'extreme vetting' at Australia's offshore detention centres


LENGTH: 638 words


US HOMELAND Security officials have begun "extreme vetting" interviews at Australia's offshore detention centres, two sources at the camps said today, as Washington honours a refugee swap that President Donald Trump had called "a dumb deal".

GETTY 

The US has begun 'extreme vetting' of refugees in Australia's offshore detention centres

The Trump administration said last month the agreement to offer refuge to up to 1,250 asylum seekers in the centres would progress on condition that refugees satisfied strict checks. 

In exchange, Australia has pledged to take Central American refugees from a centre in Costa Rica, where the United States has expanded intake in recent years, under the deal struck with President Barack Obama. 

Related articles Migrants detained in Hungary stage massive hunger strike EU attacked for 'subjecting migrants to rape and torture' in detent...

The first security interviews finished last week at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island detention centre, two refugees who went through the process said. 

The refugees said that interviews began with an oath to God to tell the truth and then proceeded for as long as six hours, with in-depth questions on associates, family, friends and any interactions with the Islamic State militant group. 

"They asked about why I fled my home, why I sought asylum in Australia," said one refugee who declined to be named, fearing it could jeopardise his application for US resettlement. 

The security interviews are the last stage of US consideration of applicants. 

Manus Island is one of two Australian-operated detention centres, which hold nearly 1,300 people who were intercepted trying to reach Australia by boat. 

Human rights groups have condemned the intercept policy and the harsh conditions of the camps. Australia says offshore processing is needed as a deterrent after thousands of people drowned at sea before the policy was introduced in 2013. 

A decision on the fate of the first 70 people interviewed is expected to be reached within the next month, a different source who works with refugees said. 

A spokesman for Australia's immigration minister refused to comment on the resettlement process. 

GETTY

Washington is honouring a refugee exchange deal struck by President Obama

The US State Department and White House did not immediately respond to questions. 

President Donald Trump's plans for extreme vetting have extended to those travelling to the United States from Muslim countries. 

Australia's relationship with the new administration in Washington got off to a rocky start when President Trump lambasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the resettlement arrangement, which President Trump labelled a "dumb deal". 

GETTY

Donald Trump had previously called the exchange a 'dumb deal'

Details of an acrimonious phone call between the pair soon after Trump took office made headlines around the world. Australia is one of Washington's staunchest allies and has sent troops to fight alongside the US military in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The relocation of asylum seekers to the United States is designed to help Papua New Guinea and Australia proceed with the planned closure of the Manus detention centre on October 31. 

GETTY

Australia will take refugees from a centre in Costa Rica in exchange the exchange

But the fate of approximately 200 men deemed non-refugees is uncertain. 

Those not offered resettlement in the United States will be offered the chance to settle in Papua New Guinea or return home. 

Australia has already offered detainees up to $25,000 to voluntarily return home; an offer very few have taken up. 

Related articles Shocking figures reveal how many people are detained in the UK Donald Trump HANGS UP on Australia's PM over 'dumb' Obama migrant deal Dungavel immigration centre to remain open as new facility is rejected


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mirror.co.uk


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:56 PM GMT 


Pitiful plight of refugees locked up in Australian island 'internment camps' who have provoked Trump's wrath;
Claims of brutality, self-harm and suicide in squalid conditions - and abuse including rapes, beatings and murder - are commonplace for asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island


BYLINE: By Stephen Jones


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1034 words


The 'forgotten' people trying to reach Australia that make up the 1,250 asylum seekers held in processing camps on islands off its coast are making headlines today.

Donald Trump and Australia PM Malcom Turnbull reportedly engaged in a heated phonecall over their plight with thew new US President hanging up the phone.

Last year Barack Obama agreed a deal where the asylum seekers being held in Papua New Guinea and Nauru would be accepted into the US as refugees - in exchange for Australia taking in people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. 

Trump today slammed the arrangement as "dumb" and "the the worst deal ever".

Meanwhile the ' illegal immigrants ' in search of a better life are reportedly suffering human rights abuses daily.

Now everyone is asking who these people are - and why they don't normally make the news?

Here's how we got to this point - and why their suffering is an issue for the world.

There are around 1,250 asylum seekers being held by Australia in the offshore detention camps - Nauru, a tiny island country in Micronesia, and Manus Island in northern Papua New Guinea.

Most are from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq - although some have no country to speak of, and are classified as stateless.

What they have in common is that they are all fleeing violence - and most have been picked up trying to reach the continent by boat.

All are trying to get to Australia for a better life. Most are trying to escape war and poverty. Some are trying to reach their families.

Some of them have been there for years - and the conditions are notoriously appalling.

The United Nations has criticised the camps as cruel and illegal - but Australia believes that if it were to let them in, it would lead to a "free for all" of mass immigration.

While the refugees are unable to turn around and get home, because they travelled to Australia by boat their right to protection as refugees is confirmed.

Because therefore they have refugee status, by law most of them are deemed to be owed Australia's protection.

On Nauru - around 983 of the 1,200 people have refugee status (with 217 classed not to have protection).

On Manus Island - around 78% of the 859 people have refugee status (with 190 classed not).

In short, awful.

The refugees are living under armed guard in squalid conditions - and getting cameras in to expose their plight has been near impossible.

But the sorry tales that have emerged are pitiful.

Both detention centres have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN.

There's been claims of systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained.

These include rapes, beatings and even the alleged murder of one asylum seeker by guards.

There's also been appalling tales of alleged child sexual abuse, self-harm and suicide attempts.

People are said to be developing mental illnesses living in the harsh conditions and without adequate medical treatment.

And that these people have had no apparent hope for the future for so many years has made it all the worse.

Last April MirrorOnline reported how an Iranian asylum seeker shouted: "I can't take it anymore" before setting himself on fire in Nauru.

There are widespread allegations of brutality and human rights abuses.

On Nauru they are kept in check by the guards and the local riot police force - who enforce the peace.

The officers were given special training ahead of their arrival - as they were more used to dealing with drink-related offences and affray, with the island previously averaging one murder a decade, and only one stabbing a year.

But some of the issues they have faced have been unanticipated.

They've had to work to keep Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers separate to avoid clashes, for instance.

There are terrible stories of children sent to adults-only detention centres.

One, for instance, Ahwazi Sawari, 17, told The Guardian how he was allegedly assaulted by a guard when he asked for more washing powder - and hospitalised in the attack.

He told the paper: "I don't want money. I don't want go Australia. I want to go for a country for freedom. Freedom, only freedom. I need only freedom."

The deal was also to include hundreds of refugees previously held on Manus or Nauru, who were in Australia receiving medical care, provided they had been found to be refugees.

Last November the US agreed to take a number of those with refugee status confirmed from the camps and resettle them. (those without are not part of the deal).

Each was set to be interviewed twice by US officials before being resettled over the next six-12 months.

Any of those that did not qualify to move to the US are being offered Papua New Guinea and Cambodia as other options.

Australia has felt under pressure on the world stage to do something about the plight of the refugees after cameras exposed the squalid living conditions they endure - with bleak hope for the future.

There was also pressure coming from within the country from its own human rights' campaigners - but its policy has been a vote winner internally.

It has consistently maintained that asylum seekers that try to reach its shores by boat will NEVER be allowed to settle on its soil.

Turnbull, who holds a slim majority in Australia, was therefore making much of the deal he struck with Obama.

When the deal was struck in November on 24 refugees had moved on to Papua New Guinea - and a "handful" in Cambodia.

Trump's four-month suspension on entry of refugees into the US has put the deal under threat.

After the phone call between the two leaders last night, Turnbull insisted the deal still stood and would be honoured by the US.

But Trump is reported to be less enthusiastic, according to the Washington Post - describing it as "the worst deal ever".

He is even said to have claimed that Australia was trying to send "the next Boston Bombers" to the US.

And he later tweeted: "Do you believe it? The Obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!"

If the deal falls through the refugees will once again be in limbo.

The Australia Goverment would have three options:

Getting the US deal back on track appears to be the best option for all, not least the refugees who continue to suffer daily.


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 27, 2017 Friday 5:36 AM GMT 


Trump to sign order halting flow of refugees into US


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 515 words


US president Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order temporarily halting the flow of refugees into America and stopping all entries from some majority-Muslim nations.

A draft of the order also includes an indefinite ban on accepting Syrian refugees, with the pause in the broader refugee programme extending for 120 days. 

Mr Trump campaigned on a pledge to put in place "extreme vetting" procedures, particularly for people coming to the US from countries with terrorism ties.

According to the draft order, the president plans to suspend issuing visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen for at least 30 days.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Mr Trump intends to sign the order during a Friday afternoon visit to the Pentagon, along with actions related to military readiness and the National Security Council.

While at the Pentagon, Mr Trump is expected to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and attend a ceremonial swearing-in for defence secretary James Mattis.

Mr Trump has the authority to determine how many refugees are accepted annually. He can suspend the initiative at any time. Refugee processing was suspended in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but was restarted months later.

During the last budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. Former US president Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

Mr Trump, according to the impending executive order, planned to cut that programme by more half to 50,000.

The draft order said while the programme is suspended, the US may admit people on a case-by-case basis "when in the national interest" and the government would continue to process refugee requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion ... is a minority religion in the individual's country".

That suggests this would allow the admission of Christians from Muslim-majority countries.

Earlier, Mr Trump continued to criticise Mexico over trade and security as the row over the proposed US-Mexican border wall raged on.

The US president wrote on Twitter that "Mexico has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough", adding: "massive trade deficits & little help on the very weak border must change, NOW!"

This comes a day after Mexico's president Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled an upcoming visit to Washington after Mr Trump signed an order to jump-start construction of his promised southern border wall.

Mr Trump has also ordered cuts in federal grants for immigrant-protecting "sanctuary cities" and a boost in the number of border patrol agents and immigration officers, pending congressional funding.

At one point, the White House also proposed a 20% border tax on imports from Mexico to pay for the wall, although spokesman Sean Spicer later clarified that this was just one of a number of options available and no final decision has been made.

The row capped a remarkable souring of relations between Washington and one of its most important international partners just days into the new US president's administration.


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MailOnline


March 26, 2017 Sunday 2:11 PM GMT 


Flags, footy and boomerangs: 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees go through FIVE-DAY course teaching them to be Australian - as 'thorough security checks' weed out extremists


BYLINE: MAX MARGAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS; Version:2


LENGTH: 628 words



Refugees from Iraq and Syria who settle in Australia sit a five-day course to learn about the country. 

The Federal Government announced in 2015 a one-off intake of 12,000 refugees from the war-torn region amid the worst refugee crisis since World War II. 

Successful applicants sit in a room filled with flags, photos of footy heroes and boomerangs as they go through the five-day course on Australian life, Channel Nine's  60 Minutes  program revealed. 

Prior to their arrival, they learn about Australia's history, its education system, housing and how to get a job once they resettle.

One part of the course involves the coordinator throwing a balloon, which signifies a job in Australia, into the air.

The refugees are encouraged to grab it with both hands.  

Details have also emerged about a 'thorough' vetting process designed to 'weed out extremists.' 

Those who sit the course are previously subjected to 'thorough' character checks designed to prevent extremists from entering the country. 

The selection process is overseen by John Moorhouse, the Department of Immigration's Middle East and Africa Regional Director.

'All of our processes are designed to weed out extremists. That's the truth,' he told the Channel Nine program.  

'We don't rely on what the person gives us. We have the capacity to look behind those as well.

'I can't comment on the details of the security checking - it's not sensible for us to do that - but they are thorough.'

Mr Moorhouse revealed the overwhelming majority of the 12,000 successful applicants were Christians, despite Islam being the dominant religion in the region.

'It's a substantial majority, and that is because the government has asked us to focus on persecuted minorities,' Mr Moorhouse said. 

'The government has emphasised that it wants us to focus on the most vulnerable people - people from persecuted minorities, families and children.'

More than 60 per cent of the 12,000 refugees, many who are desperately trying to escape ISIS, already have family in Australia.

It was announced last week 10,000 refugees have already arrived, while the remainder will be resettled in the coming months.

Between July 1, 2015 and March 21 this year, more than 21,000 visas have been granted to people affected by the conflict in Syria and Iraq.

AUSTRALIA'S RESPONSE TO THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA

In September 2015, the Australian Government announced it would make an extra 12,000 humanitarian places available in response to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. 

As of 21 March 2017, visas have been granted towards all 12,000 additional places.

These 12,000 places are in addition to Australia's Humanitarian Programme, which totalled 13,750 places for the 2015-16 financial year, and which will increase to 18,750 places in the 2018-19 financial year. 

Australia's Humanitarian Programme includes places for people in priority resettlement situations around the world, including people displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The additional 12,000 humanitarian places are just one element of Australia's overall response to the humanitarian crisis. 

Australia has contributed more than $213 million in humanitarian assistance in response to the Syria crisis since 2011, and an additional $220 million will be provided over three years, commencing in the 2016-17 financial year. 

Australia's humanitarian assistance in response to the Iraq crisis is $70 million since June 2014.

 Source: Border.gov.au


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 25, 2017 Wednesday 10:47 AM GMT 


Donald Trump facing backlash and possible legal challenges over Muslim immigration ban;
President expected to sign executive order on Wednesday blocking visas for people from seven Muslim-majority countries


BYLINE: Adam Withnall


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 777 words


Donald Trump is facing a pre-emptive backlash over his reported plans for a ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US.

The President is widely reported to be planning a series of executive orders and policy announcements on Wednesday, which he has billed as a "big day planned on national security".

Reuters reported that the orders could include a temporary ban on most refugees and a block on any visas at all being issued for people from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It cited congressional aides and immigration experts who had been briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified. 

The UN led criticism of the reported plans, saying even a temporary delay on existing refugee relocation programmes would be "highly concerning" for those involved. And legal experts suggested the ban on people from Muslim-majority countries could be challenged as unconstitutional if it was proved to discriminate on religious grounds.

Read more

Trump expected to order Mexican border wall and ban refugees

"Any substantial delay in the relocation of refugees...would be highly concerning from a humanitarian perspective," said Catherine Stubberfield, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"These men, women and children can no longer afford to wait."

Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration expert at the UCLA School of Law, said detractors could launch legal challenges if the visa ban does indeed target only Muslim-majority countries.

Legal arguments could claim the executive orders discriminate against a particular religion, which would be unconstitutional, he said.

"His comments during the campaign and a number of people on his team focused very much on religion as the target," Mr Motomura said.

Tweeting in reaction to early media reports last night, the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Nihad Awad said: "These [executive orders] will not make our nation safer, rather they will make it more fearful and less welcoming."

And Stephen Legomsky, who was chief counsel at US Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said the President had the authority to limit refugee admissions and the issuance of visas to specific countries if the administration determined it was in the public interest.

"From a legal standpoint, it would be exactly within his legal rights," said Mr Legomsky, a professor at Washington University School of Law in St Louis. "But from a policy standpoint, it would be terrible idea because there is such an urgent humanitarian need right now for refugees."

While it remains to be seen precisely what Mr Trump will announce on Wednesday, some plans for his sixth day in office are more certain.

He is expected to take part in a ceremony installing the retired Marine General John Kelly as his new secretary of homeland security.

Read more

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And according to one of Mr Trump's late night tweets on Tuesday, he will make good on his promise to order the building of a border wall between the US and Mexico.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that the State and Homeland Security Departments would work on what Mr Trump has billed as an "extreme vetting" process once Trump nominee Rex Tillerson has been installed as Secretary of State.

Sources told Reuters the Mexico wall and immigration orders were likely to be the first signed on Wednesday, while the refugee ban will come afterwards, possibly later in the week.

The latter threatens a refugee resettlement deal with Australia signed late last year, and could leave more than 1,000 asylum seekers in limbo.

The US agreed to resettle an unspecified number of refugees being held in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru on Australia's behalf, under a deal to be administered by the U.N. refugee agency.

That came after Australia agreed to help resettle refugees from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador under a US-led programme.

Australia's tough border security laws mandate that asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the country by boat go for processing to detention camps on PNG's Manus island and Nauru.

"We already didn't have much hope the US would accept us," said Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian refugee who has spent more than three years on Manus island.

"If they do not take us, Australia will have to."

Additional reporting by Reuters


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i-Independent Print Ltd


February 27, 2017  
First Edition


Man who loathed Muslims - until he met some;
UNITED STATES Trump voter in Nebraska helped family of refugees. By Andrew Buncombe


BYLINE: Andrew Buncombe


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 27


LENGTH: 607 words


By his own admission, John Dutcher never had any time for Muslims. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, his anger grew. When he saw a Muslim couple in the supermarket, he would snarl to himself, especially if the woman's head was covered. There was even a time when he considered placing strips of bacon outside a local mosque, though he never did so.

And then something happened - a family of refugees moved in next door and a process of transformation began. 

"There were two families that moved in across the hall from me. I'd seen them arrive," said Mr Dutcher, from Omaha, Nebraska's largest city. "I said to the people they were with, if there was anything I could do to help, with the apartment or whatever, then they should just ask."

A year on, at a time when the US is reeling from the impact of Donald Trump's proposed travel ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and his suspension of the country's refugee programme, Mr Dutcher, who voted for Mr Trump, has emerged as a voice of understanding and hope. When an interview he did with local television channel KETV went viral, many across the country were inspired by both his words and example.

Activists wondered that if a man who had held such strident, Islamophobic views could be turned around simply by meeting people he had previously simply given a label, what message might it carry for others.

Nebraska is flat, conservative, largely rural and overwhelmingly white. In the 2016 presidential election its districts voted 58-33 in favour of Mr Trump.

Yet Nebraska has also proved very welcoming to refugees. Between October 2015 and September 2016, the Cornhusker state welcomed 1,441 refugees, or 76 per 100,000 Nebraskans, according to a Pew Research Centre analysis. Per capita, Nebraska took more refugees than any other state, ahead of North Dakota, Idaho, Vermont and Arizona.

Officials say the state is a popular destination for refugees because the economy is strong, and there are jobs in the hospitality, meat-packing and services industries. More than 90 per cent of refugees coming to the state are doing so to reunite with family members already there.

Meanwhile, two Nebraska refugee resettlement agencies are cutting jobs in the wake of Mr Trump's executive order on immigration.

Mr Dutcher said that while he supported Mr Trump's wish to tighten the US-Mexico border, he said he was frustrated that too many people confused refugees from countries such as Syria and Iraq with the general debate on immigration.

The 61-year-old, who works for a commercial cleaning company, said his own transformation had come after many hours of prayer. He said he had been attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and that "there was a lot of change in my life that needed to be done".

He said the more he spoke with his new neighbours - sometimes making use of Google Translate - the more he came to learn of the journeys they had taken to reach Omaha. "As I found out more about them, they invited me into their homes. Some of these people came from Aleppo," he said, referring to Syria's devastated largest city.

He said the people whose apartments his new neighbours occupied had been meth addicts and drank heavily. Very quickly, the empty bottles and late-night arguments were replaced by the clutter of children who called him "big brother".

"If I had not reached out, I would never have changed. I would have stayed in that hateful mode," he said. "I was seeking change in my life. I give the credit to God. He listened to me and answered my prayers." THE INDEPENDENT

If I had not reached out, I would never have changed. I would have stayed in that hateful mode


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:16 AM GMT 


Theresa May savaged for Trump refugee ban silence


SECTION: UK


LENGTH: 826 words


Theresa May has arrived back in Britain to a storm of fury over her refusal to condemn Donald Trump's widely-criticised ban on refugees entering the United States.

Conservative MPs joined the attacks on the Prime Minister after she refused to speak out about the controversial move and one Tory said he would be hit by the ban.

Labour said it should "sadden" the country that Mrs May had failed to condemn the president's actions and the Liberal Democrats said her behaviour was "shocking". 

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is of Iraqi origin but a British citizen, said a US immigration lawyer had confirmed that he would be affected by the ban.

"A sad sad day to feel like a second-class citizen," he said. "Sad day for the USA.

"Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat.

" I'm a British citizen and so proud to have been welcomed to this country. Sad to hear ill be banned from the USA based on my country of birth."

Tory MP Heidi Allen rounded on Mrs May for the way she had handled the situation.

She said on Twitter: "Strong leadership means not being afraid to tell someone powerful when they're wrong. It's an ethos this country is proud of @theresa_may.

"I don't care how special the relationship is, some lines just shouldn't be crossed."

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the ban was "both wrong in itself and very worrying for the future".

Mrs May was pressed repeatedly about her views on the refugee ban during a press conference in Ankara where she had been holding talks with Turkish leaders.

After initially dodging questions about her views on the controversial move, the Prime Minister then insisted it was up to America to devise its own policy.

She told reporters: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees.

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

As Mrs May declined to attack the ban, her counterpart in Turkey, a country with a dismal record on human rights, was more forthcoming.

Prime minister Binali Yildirim sa id: "You cannot solve this issue of refugees by putting up walls.

"You have to eradicate the root causes of this. You have to eradicate the regional discrepancies in terms of development."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said : "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

The US president has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months but blocked those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely as part of a plan to stop "radical Islamic terrorists".

A 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations has been imposed.

Speaking in the White House, Mr Trump said the ban was "working out very nicely".

He said: "It's not a Muslim ban but we were totally prepared. It's working out very nicely.

"You see it at the airports, you see it all over, it's working out very nicely, and we are going to have a very, very strict ban and we are going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years."

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Mrs May's behaviour was "shocking".

He said: " Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The president's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on."

"At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal," he added.

"They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way."

Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau said his country welcomed " those fleeing persecution, terror and war", regardless of their faith.

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said Mr Trump must not be invited to address both houses of Parliament from Westminster Hall on his state visit later this, pointedly insisting "t hose who wish to fawn over him" should do so elsewhere.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at New York's John F Kennedy Airport to show their anger at Mr Trump's ban on refugees entering the United States.

Demonstrators held placards with slogans such as "no hate, no fear", and shouted chants exhorting "no borders, no nations, no racist deportations".

Twelve refugees were detained at the airport on Saturday.


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
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January 9, 2017 Monday


Austrian defense minister calls for EU-wide refugee cap


LENGTH: 1037 words


Text of report by Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung website on 7 January

[Unattributed report: "EU-wide upper limits on asylum"]

Austrian Defence Minister Doskozil calls for an EU-wide refugee cap and reception centres in third countries. He is the only one in the EU to demand this.

Vienna -- Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil [SPOe, Social Democratic Party of Austria] calls for EU-wide asylum quotas. Moreover, in the future, asylum seekers should no longer be allowed to file asylum applications on EU soil. In addition, according to reports by [the Austrian daily] Kurier and [the German tabloid] Bild, a paper drawn up under the leadership of Minister Doskozil provides for the setup of reception centres in third countries outside the EU, close to the crisis regions. 

"It is time to end the EU's misguided asylum policy: we should all be honest now and admit that the reception capacities in the EU are limited," the paper says, adding, "We need to stop illegal entries." According to the paper, asylum procedures should no longer be processed within the EU. For example, refugees who have been rescued in distress at sea should be taken to reception centres, where their asylum applications should be handled in an orderly procedure.

Asylum in locally set up camps

However, according to the paper, it is essential to make sure that the rights of the asylum seekers are preserved in the camps and in the ongoing procedures. Only people whose asylum applications have been decided positively should be eligible for a safe transfer to an EU country. This requires a quota or upper limit to be in place for each member country, depending on the capacities and possibilities of integration in the country. Rejected asylum seekers should be deported to their home countries or safe neighbouring regions, the paper says.

The reason for the defence minister's plans is the ongoing refugee crisis in the Middle East and Africa. In the coming years, too, civil wars, famines, climate change, and population growth will cause people to leave their homes and move towards Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warns. If the refugee deal between the EU and Turkey were to fail, too, 200,000 to 1 million people could set out for Europe. Against this backdrop, it is essential to adopt a new, EU-wide asylum policy and measures to make the external borders less penetrable, the Defence Ministry says in its paper.

Doskozil's colleague, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka of the OeVP [Austrian People's Party], welcomes the proposals from the Defence Ministry. "We fully support this," said Sobotka's spokeswoman Katharina Nehammer. He once again demanded a statutory upper limit on refugees. However, this is a delicate issue since an upper limit violates the European Human Rights Convention. In addition, already last year, an expert report by the constitutional court judges Bernd-Christian Funk and Walter Obwexer concluded that a statutory upper limit would violate the constitution.

The FPOe [Freedom Party of Austria] also welcomes Doskozil's proposals, claiming the authorship of the demands. The setup of reception centres outside the EU has been a long-standing demand of the FPOe, it says. Doskozil's fellow party member Muna Duzdar, who serves as state secretary in the Federal Chancellor's Office, is less enthusiastic about his plans. She is not generally against such a Europe-wide upper limit, she says, pointing out, however, that, currently, it is more important to provide assistance locally, that is, also in the refugee camps close to the crisis regions.

Criticism of Proposals

The Socialist Youth (SJ) criticized the minister's refugee concept. "Whenever there is an opportunity to direct public debate to the really important social and economic policy issues, Doskozil channels it back to asylum policy. By that, however, he only supports the policy of the far right," says SJ Chairwoman Julia Herr.

The EU Commission, too, indirectly rejects the proposals from Austria. The EU Commission's legal view was that the EU and its member countries were bound by the Geneva Convention, which did not allow for push-backs [preceding term published in original English] (or returns) of refugees, Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said on Friday [6 January].

It was important to seek a common EU asylum policy, but there were no plans at present to set up reception centres outside the EU. "The defence minister's proposal to abolish the right to file for asylum in Europe completely clearly shows his failure," said Greens human rights spokeswoman Alev Korun, adding that it was important to provide more assistance locally, legal ways for refugees to deprive people smugglers of their business model, and a uniform asylum system.

It depends on all member countries if and to what extent the proposals from Austria will be translated into reality. However, above all the eastern European member countries have so far strictly rejected quotas and a common asylum policy. In addition, the setup of reception centres depends on the will to cooperate of the affected third countries, which, like Turkey, could ask a lot of money for a refugee deal.

The demand for legal ways for refugees and asylum possibilities in or near the crisis regions is not new. De facto, there are no legal ways for asylum seekers at present to enter the EU, which is why many risk the dangerous passage across the Mediterranean and need the help of people smugglers to cross the border.

Until 2006, the so-called right to embassy asylum was in place in Austria. By then, refugees were allowed to submit an asylum application at an Austrian Embassy abroad. If it was accepted, they could enter the country legally. However, the right to embassy asylum was gradually abolished in all EU countries.

According to the International Organization for Migration, in the past year alone, 5,000 refugees drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. According to the EU border protection agency Frontex, in 2016, about 181,000 people set out towards Italy via the central Mediterranean route. The number of new arrivals in Greece, however, has dropped considerably since the EU-Turkey deal was signed.

Source: Wiener Zeitung website in German 7 Jan 17


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:45 AM GMT 


US refugee ban: Trump decried for 'stomping on' American values;
UN agencies, rights groups and political leaders challenge legality of executive order which appears to target Muslims Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US


BYLINE: Paul Owen, Sabrina Siddiqui, Heather Stewart, staff and agencies


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1239 words


Donald Trump is facing mounting criticism from world leaders and aid organisations after ending his first week as president with a ban on all Syrian refugees entering the US and a halt on arrivals from a string of predominantly Muslim countries.

The president signed an executive order to stop all refugee arrivals for four months - and Syrian arrivals indefinitely - on Friday, hours after meeting the British prime minister Theresa May and reportedly reaffirming his commitment to Nato.

Related: Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US

The move, which he described as "extreme vetting" measures intended to "keep terrorists out", was even more severe than expected. It will amount to a de facto ban on Muslims traveling to the US from parts of the Middle East and north Africa by prioritising refugee claims "on the basis of religious-based persecution". 

The order has already reportedly blocked people from flying into US airports, or clearing customs after arriving in the country. The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said people who had landed after the order was enacted at 4.30pm had been blocked and told they had to return to their point of origin.

Named the Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, the order places a 90-day block on entry to the US from citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. It is unclear whether the measure would apply to citizens of those countries on trips abroad who already have permission to live and work in the US.

The order also caps the total number of refugees entering the US in 2017 to 50,000, less than half the previous year's figure of 117,000.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on the Trump administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the Geneva-based agencies said in a joint statement.

They said the US's acceptance of refugees had offered a double benefit, "first by rescuing some of the most vulnerable people in the world and second by enabling them to enrich their new societies".

Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader in the Senate, said: "Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded, has been stomped upon.

"Taking in immigrants and refugees is not only humanitarian but has also boosted our economy and created jobs decade after decade. This is one of the most backward and nasty executive orders that the president has issued."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced it would be filing a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the order "because its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States".

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena F Masri, the council's litigation director. "This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani campaigner for girls' education who survived an attempted murder by the Taliban when she was 15, said she was "heartbroken" that America was "turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work hard in exchange for a fair chance at a new life".

She added: "I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Madeline Albright, the former US secretary of state, said: "There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty. America must remain open to people of all faiths and backgrounds."

She was referring the inscription of the iconic New York landmark: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a statement he was concerned about the impact of Trump's executive orders.

Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said his great-grandparents came to the US from Germany, Austria and Poland and his wife's parents were refugees from China and Vietnam. "The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that," he said.

"Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation."

Google issued a statement saying it was "concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US. We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere."

As well as halting Syrian arrivals indefinitely, the president's order suspends the admittance of all refugees to the US for 120 days. In Syria alone, the nearly six-year war under Bashar al-Assad's regime has led to more than 500,000 civilian deaths and displaced an estimated 11 million Syrians.

Although Trump administration officials continue to insist the president's actions are not targeted at any one faith, the text of the order made explicit that, when the 120-day suspension ended, the US government would prioritize religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries.

It states: "Upon the resumption of USRAP [US Refugee Admissions Program] admissions, the secretary of state, in consultation with the secretary of homeland security, is further directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality."

The order was published hours after Trump met May, the first meeting with an international head of state since his inauguration last week.

In a White House press conference on Friday, the British prime minister said: "On defence and security cooperation, we're united in our recognition of Nato as the bulwark of our collective defence and we reaffirmed our unshakeable commitment to this alliance. We're 100% behind Nato."

Downing Street has sought to toe a difficult line, between Britain's need to maintain a close relationship with the US as it leaves the EU, and Trump's unpredictability, as well as the fact that many British voters are sceptical about him.

Sources said the two leaders felt they had gained something from their discussion. May flew from Washington to Turkey overnight for bilateral talks with President Raycep Erdogan.

Trump will spend Saturday calling world leaders, including Angela Merkel of Germany, François Hollande of France and Russia's Vladamir Putin. The president's links to the latter have been the subject of huge press and public interest, and their call is expected to include discussion of the US dropping trade embargoes against Russia.


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The National (Scotland)


June 6, 2017 Tuesday


Syrian refugee crisis to deepen as funding cuts loom


BYLINE: Kirsteen Paterson


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 505 words


THE Syrian refugee crisis could be set to take another turn as 60,000 displaced families living in Lebanon and Jordan face losing their monthly funds within weeks.

Around 1.75 million Syrians are based in the countries as violence continues to rip their nation apart. 

The UNHCR refugee agency provides monthly payments to support the communities.

But today spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said it may have to cut aid to 60,000 people "as early as July" due to "critical" underfunding.

Speaking in Geneva, he said: "Despite generous pledges, humanitarian programmes in support of Syrian refugee and communities hosting them are quickly running out of resources."

Syrians are the largest refugee group in the world but an inter-agency appeal to meet their immediate humanitarian needs across the Middle East and North Africa has received less than one fifth of the finance it needs.

Addressing reporters, Mahecic said: "Given the challenges of responding to humanitarian needs at such a scale and across the entire region, early and adequate contributions are vital to ensure timely and planned delivery of refugee protection and aid programmes."

The UK government's own official Syrian relocation programme, which grants successful applicants a five-year stay, selects inhabitants of official camps in Jordan and Lebanon to deter desperate displaced people from making the journey to claim asylum in Britain under their own steam.

The countries, which have populations of 5.8m and 7.5m respectively, shelter refugee populations far higher than that resident here.

Around 70 per cent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live under the national poverty line and use the four-weekly relief to meet rent and medical bills.

The agency works with banks to deliver the cash, making its programme more cost efficient and less prone to fraud.

It claims the work has saved many from destitution, exploitation and abuse, preventing them from turning to early marriage, prostitution or child labour to survive.

Mahecic said the shortages mean some now "fear losing everything," adding: "Many say would prefer to go back to Syria to die if they stop receiving this assistance.

"For every third family in the cash assistance programme in Jordan this is their sole source of income, making them particularly vulnerable to any cuts."

Fundraisers are now appealing for almost £90m for lifeline cash assistance for 30,000 families, as well as a two-month winter aid programme for another 174,000 households and a hardship fund for 1,500 households.

UNHCR says the finance gap is also jeopardising 65,000 life-saving secondary health care interventions and the agency's capacity to issue and renew documentation for refugees.

Meanwhile in Jordan, it needs £55m to continue monthly payments to 30,000 refugee families, as well as help for the estimated 60,000 Syrians stranded at the border.

The money also pays for 115,000 primary health consultations and 12,000 referrals for secondary health services in camps and urban areas, and additional winter support for 35,000 people.


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The Guardian(London)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 11:51 AM GMT 


Archbishop and Tory MPs criticise closure of child refugee scheme;
Pressure grows on PM and home secretary over closure of scheme to bring child refugees to UK after only 350 arrivals


BYLINE: Alan Travis, Rowena Mason and Amelia Gentleman


SECTION: UK NEWS


LENGTH: 1193 words


Theresa May has been criticised by the archbishop of Canterbury and a growing number of Tory MPs over her government's decision to limit a scheme to provide a haven in Britain to unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.

Justin Welby said he was "saddened and shocked" by the decision to limit the Dubs scheme to only 350 children, saying he believed ministers had been "committed to welcoming up to 3,000".

Related: Daughter of 'British Schindler' urges May to help more child refugees

The most senior Church of England cleric said it was "regrettable" to end the scheme when it had helped such a small number. "Jesus commands us to care for the most vulnerable," he added. 

He was joined by a string of backbench Conservatives, as well as Labour politicians and relief workers, who said the prime minister should lift the cap on numbers, while local councils made clear they could take more refugees if more money was made available.

Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, said she and a number of colleagues were angry and would be pressing for the Dubs route to remain open, starting with a parliamentary debate on 23 February.

"Quite a few of us had sensed things were not heading in the right direction and had applied for a backbench debate anyway. That will be the first parliamentary opportunity. There are quite a lot of us that are not going to let this go," she said.

"Our job over the next week or so is to make everyone aware of what has happened and I don't believe we will let this go. All the government has to do is leave the system open and let councils come forward. There is just absolutely no reason to shut the scheme down."

In the House of Lords, Alf Dubs, who originally designed the scheme, accused the prime minister of a breach of the "spirit of the commitment" she had given him during the passage of the Immigration Act last May. He said ministers were "arbitrarily closing down the scheme".

Barbara Winton, whose late father Sir Nicholas Winton helped 669 mostly Jewish children - including the future Lord Dubs, flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, asked May to remember the words the prime minister had used at her father's memorial service as the world "once again teeters on the edge of dark times".

An application to expedite a high court legal challenge is to be heard on Friday. The charity Help Refugees, which brought the challenge, claims the government has failed to properly consult local authorities over the number of available places for unaccompanied child refugees as required under the Dubs amendment.

But May and the home secretary, Amber Rudd, strongly defended their decision to close the scheme once one last group of 150 children have been brought to Britain, probably from Greece and Italy.

When May faced questions about the issue at a Downing Street press conference after talks with the Italian prime minister, she emphasised Britain's financial contribution to refugee camps in the Syrian region and the number of refugee children who had arrived in the UK from outside Europe.

"We have been seeing quite a number of children and families being resettled here in the United Kingdom. I think what we are doing in terms of refugees is absolutely right, on top of course of the significant financial support and humanitarian aid we are giving to refugees in the region of Syria - £2.3bn, the second biggest bilateral donor," she said.

Charity workers in Calais said an estimated 200 asylum-seeking children were now living rough in the forests and woodland around the demolished refugee camp, many of whom had expected to be eligible to be transferred to the UK under the Dubs amendment.

"They are not in tents because it makes them more visible to the police; they want to stay secret and out of sight. But it is quite dangerously cold," said Amelia Burr, of Help Refugees. Throughout January nighttime temperatures have been around -5C (23F). "We give out sleeping bags and blankets at night; when we come back the next day the blankets are frozen."

Young asylum seekers were once again attempting to get on to lorries travelling to the UK at night, she said. Last month, a 20-year-old from Eritrea was killed on the motorway. "There is very little legal option for minors who want to get to the UK now, so they are left with only one option, which is to risk their lives to try to get to England."

Natasha Tsangarides, Greece field manager for the charity Safe Passage, which helps refugee children to find legal ways of seeking asylum in the UK, said there were more than 1,000 child refugees in Greece on a waiting list for places in children's shelters who urgently needed help accessing appropriate places to stay.

"A couple of boys are prostituting themselves just to survive in Greece. There are over 1,000 lone, vulnerable and desperate children here, who don't even have a home to sleep in. There is a huge problem here," she said. "If they are going to take no more than 150 children more from across France, Italy and Greece, that's simply not good enough."

Ministers were careful not specify a number when the Dubs amendment made it into law last May, although it had widely been expected that several thousand unaccompanied children would be allowed to enter the UK and that the scheme would remain open in the long term.

Tania Mathias, the Tory MP for Twickenham, said: "It was never expected to be closed at any point. Britain should be leading the way, there should be more resources for local authorities."

She said she was "hopeful because there was such a lot of criticism today" that the government would change its mind and keep the scheme open.

"I've asked authorities to be given more money because they've said it's not a question of looking after the children for one or two years; these are complex cases," she said.

Rudd said the government had fulfilled its obligations. She said 350 was the limit of the capacity of local councils this financial year to fund places.

She also said British and French authorities feared that the existence of the Dubs scheme was "a pull factor" for refugee children to head to Britain and provided opportunities for the people traffickers. "We don't want to incentivise journeys to Europe," she said.

David Simmonds, of the Local Government Association, which has estimated it costs £50,000 a year to look after a vulnerable lone child refugee, said it had long urged the government to put in place long-term funding arrangements.

The chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper, said she was shocked at the closure of a scheme that had ensured teenage girls from Eritrea who had been trafficked, raped and abused were now in school in Britain.

"Far from deterring traffickers, this decision to halt legal routes to sanctuary will encourage them instead," Cooper said. "The government is pushing vulnerable children back into the arms of smuggler and trafficker gangs, and back into modern slavery. Already we are seeing hundreds of children starting to return to Dunkirk and Calais. Both France and Britain have an obligation to work together to make sure the dangerous Calais camp conditions don't start all over again."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 8, 2017 Wednesday 3:41 PM GMT 


Government backtracks on pledge to take Syrian child refugees;
David Cameron promised 3,000 Syrian refugee children would be allowed to settle in the UK


BYLINE: Tom Peck


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 777 words


Hours before the final vote on the triggering ofArticle 50 the government quietly ended its commitment to rehousing3,000 Syrian childrefugees, limiting the figure to 350.

Earlier this year, in response to the Dubs Amendment, introduced by Lord Alfred Dubs, aCzech Jew who fled to the UK in the 1930s,

David Cameron said 3,000Syrian refugee children would be admitted to the UK, but in a written statement Home Office announced it would keep the number at 350. 

The statement from Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said local authorities indicated "have capacity for around 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children until the end of this financial year" and said the country should be "proud" of its contribution to finding homes for refugees.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called the decision "a betrayal of British values."

Read more

Syrian refugee's lawsuit against Facebook over 'fake news' begins

"Last May, MPs from all parties condemned the government's inaction on child refugees in Europe, and voted overwhelmingly to offer help to the thousands of unaccompanied kids who were stranded without their families backed by huge public support," Mr Faron said.

"Instead, the government has done the bare minimum, helping only a tiny number of youngsters and appearing to end the programme while thousands still suffer. At the end of December last year the government had failed bring a single child refugee to the UK under the Dubs scheme from Greece or Italy where many of these children are trapped."

Ministers introduced the programme last year after coming under intense pressure to give sanctuary to lone children stranded on the Continent.

Calls for the measure were spearheaded by Lord Dubs, whose amendment to the Immigration Act requires the Government to "make arrangements to relocate to the UK and support a specified number of unaccompanied refugee children from other countries in Europe".

The legislation did not specify a figure but on Wednesday Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said 350 children will be transferred under the initiative.

It is the first time an official figure has been given for the number of under-18s who will be resettled in the UK under the Dubs Amendment, which is given effect by Section 67 of the Immigration Act.

Judith Dennis, Policy Manager at the Refugee Council said: "The Government's job is far from done; the global refugee crisis hasn't gone away and if anything it's getting worse.

"The UK needs to step up rather than step back and ensure that we pull our weight by offering refuge to more vulnerable people and enabling more refugees to reunite with their families here."

It was reached after consultation with councils on their capacity to care for and support asylum-seeking children, the Government said.

In a written ministerial statement, Mr Goodwill said more than 900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were transferred to the UK from Europe in total last year.

This included more than 750 from France as part of Britain's support for the clearance of the Jungle camp in Calais.

More than 200 of those children met the criteria for the Dubs route, while the remainder were transferred under an accelerated process based on, but operated outside of, the Dublin Regulation covering family reunion cases.

Mr Goodwill said: "The UK can be proud of its record of helping refugee children and I can today announce, in accordance with Section 67 of the Immigration Act, that the Government will transfer the specified number of 350 children pursuant to that section, who reasonably meet the intention and spirit behind the provision.

"This number includes over 200 children already transferred under Section 67 from France. It does not include children transferred to UK where they have close family here.

"We will announce in due course the basis on which further children will be transferred from Europe to the UK under Section 67 of the Immigration Act to the specified number."

The Home Office minister went on: "As required by the legislation, we have consulted with local authorities on their capacity to care for and support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children before arriving at this number.

"Local authorities told us they have capacity for around 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children until the end of this financial year.

"We estimate that at least 50 of the family reunion cases transferred from France as part of the Calais clearance will require a local authority placement in cases where the family reunion does not work out.

"We are grateful for the way in which local authorities have stepped up to provide places for those arriving and we will continue to work closely to address capacity needs."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 8, 2017 Wednesday 5:31 PM GMT 


UN human rights chief attacks Europe's 'chilling indifference' to refugees as 2017 sees record deaths;
More than 5,000 asylum seekers have died at sea over the past year


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 787 words


The UN's human rights chief has attacked the "chilling indifference" to the deaths of thousands of refugees shown by European leaders as thecrackdown continues across the continent.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that although "heroic efforts" are underway to save lives in the Mediterranean, governments are turning their backs on those who survive the treacherous journey.

"Many ordinary people in Europe have welcomed and supported migrants, but political leaders increasingly demonstrate a chilling indifference to their fate," he told a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva. 

Calais's refugee children have a message for the UK government

"I am particularly disturbed by lurid public narratives which appear deliberately aimed at stirring up public fear and panic, by depicting these vulnerable people as criminal invading hordes."

The issue became a topic of debate during the EU referendum, when Nigel Farage unveiled a poster depicting migrants being escorted through Slovenia by police with the caption "breaking point".

Read more

Government votes down plan to rescue more child refugees

Hungarian border guards 'taking selfies with beaten migrants'

Number of child refugees trying to reach Europe doubles in a year

It followed criticism of David Cameron's description of a "swarm" and "bunch of migrants", while a

Sun

columnist compared refugees to "cockroaches".

More asylum seekers are dying attempting to reach the continent than ever before but those who survive the journey face border closures and tightening legal restrictions making it ever more difficult to gain asylum.

The British Government has scrapped a programme to resettle unaccompanied child refugees, while Hungary is building a new fence to keep out migrants and the EU is considering initiatives to keep refugees in war-torn Libya.

The vast majority of boats are launched by smugglers in the country, where a fragile government has been unable to regain control of territory controlled by rival armed groups including Isis.

Libya's agencies, including the coastguard, are themselves accused of torturing, abusing and killing migrants forcibly returned to land and imprisoned in squalid detention centres.

Despite a growing body of evidence raising concern from the UN and humanitarian groups, Britain is among the countries training the Libyan coastguard, while world leaders have agreed to help bolster its capability and Italy has pledged millions of euros in funding for anti-smuggling initiatives.

Read more

Harrowing footage exposes 'inhuman' treatment of refugees in Libya

Mr al-Hussein said he was concerned at calls to establish processing centres for asylum seekers in North Africa and "engage external actors in migration issues, with little regard for human rights".

"Migrants apprehended at sea by the Libyan coastguard or similar agencies may be put at risk of further violence," he added.

"I reiterate the importance of abiding by the principle that people must not be sent back to countries where they may face torture, persecution or threats to their life."

Crossings over the Central Mediterranean have increased after the EU-Turkey deal was imposed to stop refugees taking boats over the Aegean, and countries along the Balkans route from Greece to western Europe closed their borders.

A migrant injured at the Hungarian border being treated at an MSF facility in Serbia in February (Tahir Mirza/MSF)

Hungary is building a new and reinforced fence to keep refugees out, while passing a new law allowing all asylum seekers on its territory to be detained and forcibly returned over the border to Serbia.

Mr al-Hussein hit out at the "toxic notions of so-called ethnic purity" put forward by anti-immigration leaders including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, warning that they "hark back to an era in which many people suffered atrociously, Hungarians included".

More than 40 countries were examined in a wide-ranging speech on Wednesday, where the UN was warned that 2017 could prove to be a "pivotal year" for human rights amid terror attacks, security crackdowns, populism and the rise of "authoritarian-minded leaders".

Mr al-Hussein launched a wide-ranging attack on Donald Trump, voicing his concern over the President's new immigration ban, attacks on the press and judiciary and the administration's handling of a series of human rights issues.

"Greater and more consistent leadership is needed to address the recent surge in discrimination, anti-Semitism, and violence against ethnic and religious minorities," he said.

"Vilification of entire groups such as Mexicans and Muslims, and false claims that migrants commit more crimes than US citizens, are harmful and fuel xenophobic abuses."


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The Guardian(London)


May 15, 2017 Monday 2:05 AM GMT 


Australian government downplayed risk of shots fired on Manus Island, analysis shows;
Amnesty International has released expert analysis of photos and video from the Good Friday incident that directly contradicts the official account


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 1005 words


Amnesty International says expert analysis shows bullets were fired directly into the Manus Island detention centre during the Good Friday riot, and that the Australian government intentionally downplayed the risk to refugeesand staff.

In a report released on Monday, the human rights group says digital and military experts have verified images and footage from the Good Friday shooting, and their findings contradict claims made by Australian immigration officials that only one weapon was discharged, and that only into the air.

In a statement issued to the Guardian after the Good Friday event, the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection said, "PNG military personnel discharged a weapon into the air during the incident." 

Related: Peter Dutton's claims about Manus violence unsupported on the ground, Greens senator says

However, staff, refugees, and asylum seekers in the centre reported hearing 100 shots fired into the detention centre, piercing fences and hitting buildings where they were sheltering.

The Amnesty report says video footage shot during the riot and images taken in its aftermath, showing the damage caused by bullets, demonstrate that several bullets were fired into the detention centre where staff and refugees were hiding.

"Our investigation shows there is no doubt that on 14 April 2017 bullets were fired not only into the air but directly into the Manus Island refugee centre in a way that seriously endangered the lives of the people inside," Amnesty International's Pacific researcher, Kate Schuetze said.

"This was not an isolated incident. Refugees trapped on Manus Island have faced several violent attacks in the past. They are the direct result of an inherently abusive system put in place by the Australian government."

The PNG government says its investigation into the Good Friday shooting is continuing. No arrests have been made.

Schuetze said the Australian government had failed to take responsibility for people's lives, arguing the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, sought to diminish the seriousness of the shooting.

"Instead of waiting for the results of an investigation, Dutton has inflamed matters by making an irresponsible and unfounded claim about the shooting incident."

The riot on Good Friday, the second time armed assailants have attacked the detention centre, was sparked after a dispute over the use of a soccer field nearby to the detention centre.

"Drunken soldiers ... went on a rampage" according to PNG police. The defence force personnel attempted to storm the centre, firing weapons at refugees and staff hiding inside, and even using a vehicle to try to ram the gates.

Dutton said the riot was sparked over concerns that a Manusian boy had been able to enter the centre where he was given fruit.

"I think there was concern about why the boy was being led, or for what purpose he was being led, away back into the regional processing centre."

However, it later emerged that the boy went into the centre - having asked for food - a week before the riot, and the minister's account has been contradicted by PNG's police and defence forces, members of parliament, staff in the centre, as well as the refugees and asylum seekers who were there.

Manus police chief David Yapu refuted Dutton's claim the incident with the boy was being investigated by police: "There is no complaint being made by the parents of the boy."

The three refugees who assisted and fed the local boy, who came to the centre gates asking for food, have pleaded with authorities to release CCTV footage of the boy going into the centre which they say will vindicate their version of events.

"We helped a hungry and poor child who was requesting for food or money. He was fluent in English and begging for food," the said in a formal complaint to detention centre managers Broadspectrum.

"All of these incidents is recorded by your CCTV cameras. We are requesting for the immediate release of the footage of this incident. We didn't do any wrong except helping a poor boy."

Refugees inside the detention centre have said the Good Friday shooting was reminiscent of the February 2014 riots when police and guards stormed the centre, breaking down fences and shooting at refugees. More than 70 refugees were seriously injured in three days of violence, including one man shot, and another who had his throat slit.

Reza Barati was murdered by guards who kicked the Iranian asylum seeker as he lay on the ground before dropping a rock on his head.

After releasing its latest report, Amnesty has renewed its calls for the detention centre on Manus Island to be shut down.

"Until that system is dismantled and the refugees are brought to safety, the threat to their lives will remain," Schuetze said.

More than 800 men are still held in the Manus Island detention centre, about 100 are living in a transit centre nearby to Manus's main town, Lorengau, or elsewhere in PNG.

Related: Manus Island controversy: who said what and when

Of the men remaining in the detention centre, about 700 have been formally recognised as refugees and are legally owed protection. About 160 men have had their claims for protection rejected.

Officials from the US departments of state and homeland security have been on the island conducting preliminary interviews about resettlement in America, however no one has yet been accepted.

Extra police have been deployed to the Manus centre, to help Australian and PNG authorities force refugees to relocate to the transit centre.

The Australian Border Force deputy commissioner Mandy Newton told PNG's national broadcasting corporation police would help prevent unrest during the relocation.

"Because we don't want any trouble to occur, we don't want any rioting to occur. We want to consult with the people in the centre - which we have been doing now for some years - but it's important also that people know they can't behave inappropriately, either in the community or within the centre."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 23, 2017 Thursday 5:14 PM GMT 


Tory MP says people should 'stop being so sentimental' about Syrian child refugees;
Pauline Latham said it was in the best interests of Syrian refugees to remain in the Middle East region


BYLINE: Jon Stone


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:7


LENGTH: 825 words


A Conservative MP has caused anger after she urged people to "stop being so sentimental" about Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict to Europe.

Pauline La



tham, the MP for Mid Derbyshire, said that Syrian refugees who had made it to Europe were not under threat and were in safe countries. She said taking in refugees was acting as "pull factor" and that it would be best for them to stay in their home region.

The comments, which theMP later said were "misconstrued" and a "poor choice of words",came in a debate in the House of Commons about the Government's closure of the Dubs scheme on child refugees. 

Read more

UK closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m profit for smugglers'

The Government had been expected to take 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees in from camps in Europe but instead closed the scheme after 350. Ministers said they believe the scheme was acting as an "incentive" for children to travel to Europe as refugees.

Ms Latham said that reported poor conditions in the camps, such as rat infestation, were not a matter for the UK.

"We do need to provide as much as we can to keep the people in the [Middle East] region because what most Syrians want to do is to go home once it is safe to do so. If they've come here they will not be able to go home as easily," she told MPs.

"I would like to say that although I understand the sentiments of what people say we should stop being so sentimental and we should actually be looking at what the best thing to do for these families and children [is] which is to keep them in the region - and that's what this government are doing."

The MP's comments elicited shouts of anger from other MPs in the chamber.

SNP Chris Law, who was speaking straight after Ms Latham said he was "shocked, actually, to hear the last comments about sentimentality".

Read more

London university offers course just for refugees and asylum seekers

UK Government accused of 'appalling lack of leadership' over refugees 

Downing Street in spat with Francois Hollande over young migrants

More than 70 refugees wash up dead on Libyan beach

"Many children in Greece find themselves in detention centres where they're made to sleep in crowded, dirty, rat infested cells, often without mattresses and are deprived of basic sanitation and privacy," he said.

"It is reported that some boys are even turning to prostitution to keep themselves alive. If I am sentimental for bringing this up then I am very proud to be so because these are some of the basic facts."

Ms Latham interjected to respond: "If we're talking about Greece and being rat infested and no mattresses, whose fault is that? That's Greece's fault and they should be helping those children."

Mr Law replied: "A simple fact of the matter: the world is a small place and we all belong in it."

Chris Law said he was 'proud' to be branded sentimental (House of Commons)

Labour MP Stella Creasy said Ms Latham should tell herself "whatever [she] has to tell herself to sleep at night".

"The member of mid Derbyshire talks about other countries and their responsibilities - she is right, I agree with her, France, Greece, Italy, we should all be doing more. But because one country is not doing enough does not absolve us of doing our bit we could do, and that is the problem," she argued.

She later added: "Whatever the member for mid Derbyshire has to tell herself to sleep at night about this issue, let her tell herself that.

Stella

Creasy

called on MPs to reject Ms Latham's comments (House of Commons)

"Let us not as a house decry these children but stand up for them, because that is the best tradition, that is what will keep them safe and that is what will do justice to this House and this country."

Ms Latham said in a statement issued after the debate that her comments had been "misconstrued". She added that she had used a "poor choice of words".

"I fear I have been misconstrued in my speech today. I claimed we must think logically and not sentimentally in order to do what is best for the children. As I stated, 'we should stop being so sentimental and we should actually be looking at what the best thing to do [is] for these families and children'," she said.

"I admit this was not the best choice of words from me, and what I meant is that we should analyse the issue objectively to provide the most useful help and ensure the greatest level of safety for the children, not that we should not care. I visited a Jordanian refugee camp out of concern for refugees, not a lack of it."

In the debate on Thursday, MPs from all parties - including the Conservatives - were critical of the Government's early closure of the scheme.

On Wednesday, charity representatives told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee that people traffickers were likely to benefit from a £20m windfall due to the closure of the scheme as children turned to illegal means of getting to the UK.

Others warned of "severe confusion" on the ground among the children over what the UK's policy was.


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walesonline.co.uk


February 3, 2017 Friday 2:27 PM GMT 


The refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers who are all making Wales great;
Maybe it's our time to say thank you


BYLINE: By Tyler Mears


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 791 words


Not so long ago,Donald Trump'soverly-manicured fingers put pen to paper to sign an order halting the US refugee programme for 120 days.

Yes, the walking, talking comb-over, who'd be better-placed behind the tanning counter of a Superdrug store, indefinitely banned all Syrian refugees and suspended the entry of all nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.

And what's worse, a lot of Americans let him do it. 

Yes these people, whether they're just ignorant or blinded by his white teeth and ill-fitting suits, essentially helped Trump to put a target on the backs of millions of people.

And we're not talking about "refugees", "immigrants" or "asylum seekers" as a nameless, faceless, group here.

Donald Trump: Muslim Ban - Explainer

We're talking about individuals and families - parents separated from their children, husbands from their wives, brothers from their sisters.

Firefighters, doctors, soldiers, police officers, scientists and teachers - people who have spent years working for and on behalf of the country they call home.

Here's how many people signed the Donald Trump petition where you live

We're talking about real people who make a big difference to the very society we live in today, no more so than right here in Wales.

He fled the dictatorship of General Siad Barre in north Somalia in 1981, applied for refugee status in Cardiff and was given British citizenship.

In the following years he was appointed as an adviser to the Welsh Assembly Government on refugee affairs and become development co-ordinator of Somaliland Societies in Europe as well as doing his senior job at the Welsh Refugee Council andhelping thousands of other people seeking refugein the capital.

Raid is a dentist who moved to Cardiff from Iraq in 1998.

Since opening his dental practice in St Mellons and treating thousands of Welsh patients, Raid has also travelled to Calais on a number of occasions to help provide medical and dental support to refugees fleeing war.

He even turned his old caravan into a portable dental practice, as well as just being an all-round cool guy.

I mean, last year he even gave a present to a little girl after she sent him a letter addressed to the tooth fairywith her tooth inside - what a guy!

Salah, who has a biology degree and speaks five languages, fled the turmoil of the Iraqi-Kurdish civil war by trekking across mountains on the borders of Iran.

He worked as a tailor in Turkey, avoided jail in Italy and was eventually smuggled into the UK from Belgium.

After arriving in South Wales, Salah went on to learn English in his spare time and started volunteering with the local refugee council as an interpreter.

He evensaid his wedding vows in Welsh. Ardderchog Salah!

These are the two men behind the 'pro-Trump' rally in Cardiff

A former refugee, Eric fled Cameroon and paid people traffickers £1,000 to take him to Malta before making his way via Russia to Britain.

He spent his time as a stateless refugee writing and has since become a staged playwright, with his production My Mouth Brought Me Here beingperformed at the South Bank Centre in Londonlast summer.

There are also loads of amazing women who are helping to shape the future of Wales - Meena Upadhyaya being one of them.

An Indian-born Welsh medical geneticist and an honorary professor at Cardiff University, Meena was involved in identifying the genetic mutations responsible for two different diseases and developed tests to aid in the diagnosis of more than 20 genetic diseases.

Over her career, she's authored more than 200 scientific articles and three textbooks and received awards from the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Inspire Wales Awards, the European Neurofibromatosis Group, and the Welsh Assembly.

She's also a kick-ass women's rights campaigner. She's an advocate for women of ethnic minorities; she founded the Welsh Asian Women Achievement Awards and the organisation Ethnic Minority Women in Welsh Healthcare.

Asylum seekers are living in rat-infested housing with rotting furniture

And then there's the group of refugees whohanded out flowers in Aberystwythlast year.

You might remember them - the families, from Syria, handed out flowers as a way of saying thank you for the welcome they had received since arriving in the seaside town.

Each flower had a tag with the words "Diolch i chi am eich croeso/ Thank you for welcoming us.... Syrian refugees".

So maybe now it's our time to say thank you.

Thank you to all the inspirational, brave and epic people who help make Wales the multicultural, diverse and open place it is.

Who knows? Maybe it might be a good idea for Trump to visit Wales.

That way he'll be able to meet all the amazing people who call it home.

Or maybe not...

How Wales' first Syrian refugees are settling in a year after arriving


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The Irish News


May 16, 2017 Tuesday


Hundreds live in hellish conditions at rat-infested refugee camp - Marking 60 years of Christian Aid week, Allison Morris travelled to Serbia where the charity is working with refugee families who have made the perilous journey across the Balkan trail to escape war and religious persecution


SECTION: Pg. 15


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When you think of a refugee do you picture a doctor, dentist, university lecturer, car mechanic, supermarket owner, hairdresser, dress-maker or even a Hugo Boss store manager?

If you take a walk around the refugee camps of Europe, take time to hear the stories of displaced people from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan that's exactly the type of people you will find and more.

During a visit to Serbia's refugee camps earlier this year with Christian Aid I met all of the above, but regardless of profession or social status in their country of original they were all seeking the same thing, safety for their family and education for their children. 

To be able to go to school and university, to be free from religious persecution and to sleep at night without fear of bombs and chemical weapons.

Most sold their homes and worldly possessions to pay ruthless traffickers to get them to Europe. But with the borders now closed thousands are trapped, separated from loved ones with no idea when they might get word on their asylum application.

In Belgrade 'The Barracks' situated behind the train station in the city has became an unofficial camp, home to around 800 young men and boys.

The conditions are hellish, rat-invested and freezing in the winter. The men burn old railway sleepers to keep warm. Diesel has saturated the wood making it toxic leaving most of them suffering from respiratory illnesses.

Graffiti on the wall of the barracks reads, "No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark'.

The Serbians want the men to register in official camps, but most are waiting it out until the weather breaks to make their way to the border and attempt to illegally cross.

Those from Pakistan know they are unlikely to be granted refugee status and so prefer to stay under the radar.

But for families with small children, this is not an option. They must find food and shelter in official camps.

There are 17 refugee camps dotted across Serbia, in a country with memories of the Balkan wars still fresh. The Serbians treat those fleeing violence with a compassion not found in many of the neighbouring countries.

Christian Aid has been working on the ground with Serbian charity Philanthropy, to provide practical help.

Laundry rooms and new kitchens to help with the basic needs of the families staying in clean but cramped conditions.

Khalid Mortazazada, fled Iran with his young family to escape religious persecution.

His father was a politician but had worked with a party who opposed the present regime, leaving the entire family under threat of assassination.

A teacher, he at first moved to Iraq, but after explosions close to the house he was living fled yet again in fear of his young family's lives.

With his wife Awat who is Iraqi, his seven year-old son and four year-old daughter he tells me he would ideally like to go back to his home in Iran but knows that's not an option.

When I met him in a camp in Bujanovac, he was a year into his refugee journey, living in one room in the converted former factory with his family.

His brother has been granted full asylum in London and is working in the city.

"I don't want to go to the UK or Germany illegally, but accepted as a refugee. My children need to go to school and I want to work", he says.

He tells us of the problems his family faced in Turkey and Bulgaria where refugees are less than welcome.

They were robbed by bandits who stripped them naked, put guns to their heads and left them standing in an isolated road in the dead of night.

"The kiddies were crying and shaking. I thought we would die," Khalid said.

They were rescued by other refugees and continued on their journey, landing in Serbia just before the borders were closed.

"Serbians are good people, they gave us clothes and food. We had nothing left," he said.

He is was one of the few of the people I spoke to who wanted to come to the United Kingdom. Most speak of a new life in Germany, I couldn't find a single person who had even heard of Northern Ireland.

"We are all equal here, no-one is better or worse. We are all refugees, we all need a home, write about my family, tell people what is happening, tell them we are good people, tell them we need their help", he said.

- You could help to change the lives of refugees fleeing conflict and crisis this Christian Aid Week by donating online at www.caweek.org calling 08080 006 006, or texting 'GIVE' to 70040 to give £5.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 1:22 PM GMT 


Panic at the borders: Airport officials are ALREADY turning away visa holders and refugees affected by Trump immigration ban as top firms like Google urge middle eastern workers to return to the U.S. immediately


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 650 words



Visa, green card holders and refugees have already been blocked from getting on flights to the United States just hours after Trump signed an executive order introducing his tough new immigration bans. 

Those who were already in the air flying when Trump's executive order came into effect on Friday were stopped and detained when they landed in the U.S.

Others trying to board flights from countries listed on the order were banned from getting on planes bound for America. 

Department of Homeland Security had issued a directive at 4.30pm enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and some visa holders.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night.

It comes as Google called on its employees who may be affected by the immigration order to return to the U.S. immediately fearing they may be banned from re-entering the country. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

The order also puts a 120 ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice.

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with.  

It has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.

Lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday night were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning, The New York Times  reports. 

One of Iraqis detained, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, has been working in Iraq on behalf of the U.S. government for 10 years. The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son.  

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.    

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.'


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The National (Scotland)


March 20, 2017 Monday


Record breaking Scottish cyclist Mark Beaumont champions Bikes for Refugees


BYLINE: Nan Spowart


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 526 words


RECORD-breaking long distance Scottish cyclist and adventurer Mark Beaumont has pledged his support for a charity that supplies refugees with bikes.

He is now encouraging others to join a fundraising fancy dress bike ride through Edinburgh in April in aid of Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) as well as support a two day fundraising event that begins today. 

"The work that they do is fantastic - it's simple but effective and also helps to put a smile back on the faces of families and children through the joy of cycling," said Beaumont.

"I commend the work of Bikes for Refugees and all the people who have supported them through the donation of bikes.

"I would encourage everyone to get behind them and support their valuable work."

He continued: "Help them cycle the 4797km distance from Edinburgh to Damascus on fixed bikes or decorate your bike and join them for a fundraising fancy dress bike ride through Edinburgh on April 2 and again on May 7 for a fundraising spin at LifesCycle spin studio in Leith.

"I might just see you there in preparation for my next big adventure."

Steven McCluskey, founder and director of Bikes for Refugees (Scotland), who co-ordinates the project in his spare time, said it was receiving support from all over Scotland.

McCluskey said: "As a grassroots community project we are entirely led by volunteers and could not do what we do without the valuable support we receive from many individuals and projects such as the wonderful SoulRiders Scotland who support our Glasgow Hub and the repair and distribution of bikes alongside the Bridge 8 Hub outdoor activity centre supporting our operations in Edinburgh.

"It's great that people like Mark have come out in support of not only our work in Scotland but also of the positive contribution of refugees to Scottish life, all helping to raise understanding and break down barriers."

McCluskey said the charity was also heartened to be approached by the Edinburgh University STAR (Student Action for Refugees) group seeking to connect students with opportunities to campaign, fundraise and volunteer on behalf of refugees.

"The fundraising cycle from Edinburgh to Damascus, the capital of Syria, is an inspiring idea to help raise important awareness and funds for our project and the work of Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders," he said.

"Students are signing people up to clock up the miles on eight static bikes over three days and nights - the more people who get involved the better.

They are inviting people to sponsor the event via its gofundme page (https://www.gofundme.com/ride-for-refugees-star)."

April's fancy dress ride will award prizes for adults and children for the best costumes and dressed bikes.

"It's guaranteed to be a fun and colourful day where people will be able to cycle alongside and in solidarity with many of our new refugee friends," said McCluskey.

The fun spin session on May 7 will also involve awareness raising, films, music and an opportunity to meet and share food with refugees and their families.

There are a limited number of spin bikes so people are asked to register for a bike as soon as possible at www.lifescycle.co.uk.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 2, 2017 Thursday 8:18 AM GMT 


Donald Trump calls refugees US agreed to resettle from Australian detention camps 'illegal immigrants';
White House says President will honour predecessor's pledge to resettle up to 1,250 people


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 654 words


Donald Trump is being lambasted for describing refugees the Obama administration agreed to resettle from Australiandetention camps on Pacific islands as "illegal immigrants".

His predecessor pledged to house up to 1,250 of the most vulnerable asylum seekers held in "inhumane"centres on Papua New Guinea and Nauru, while Australia agreed to resettle refugees from Central America.

Mr Trump called the agreement struck last year a "dumb deal" on Twitter in an unprecedented public attack on one of America's closest allies. 

Leaked

Nauru

report highlights 'appalling' refugee conditions

The President had reportedly aired his grievances in an angry phone call with MalcolmTurnbull on Wednesday, when the Australian Prime Minister attempted to confirm whether the arrangement still held.

Describing it as the "worst deal ever", Mr Trump accused his ally of attempting to export the "next Boston bombers", the

Washington Post

reported.

Read more

Trump's 'Muslim ban' will lead to people being tortured

More terrorists are born in US than from 'Muslim ban' countries

Trump pledges to review 'dumb deal' to take in Australian refugees

He followed up the call by tweeting: "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!"

Critics quickly pointed out that the men, women and children to be resettled could not be illegal when their transfers had been organised and facilitated by the US government.

To be defined as an illegal immigrant, people must have violated a country's laws by either crossing the border irregularlyor overstaying their visas.

The vast majority of migrants arriving in Europe in the ongoing refugee crisis initially fulfil the definition but then become asylum seekers by exercising their right under the 1951 Refugee Convention to apply for international protection.

Australians join a rally organised by the Refugee Action Coalition calling for the closure of the Manus and

Nauru

detention centres (

Getty

)

The US agreement with Australia, by contrast, sees men, women and children who have already been vetted by the Department of Homeland Security legally transferred into the country by the American government.

The United Nations and humanitarian groups have raised concern over Australia's camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where all asylum seekers attempted to reach the country by sea are held indefinitely as part of the controversial "stop the boats" policy.

Refugees have set themselves on fire in protest at dire conditions at the processing centres, where physical, mental and sexual abuse has been reported.

Most are Muslims from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including the persecuted Rohingya minority, meaning their arrival would contravene Mr Trump's executive order suspending the US refugee programme and immigration from seven Muslim-majority "countries of concern".

He claimed the move would prevent "bad dudes" coming to the US, despite the fact countries linked to previous terror attacks were not on the list, and warnings the "Muslim ban" would fuel propaganda efforts by Isis and other jihadi groups.

Despite the President's statements, the White House and the US Embassy in Australia both said Mr Trump would honour the agreement, while Mr Turnbull reiterated that he believed the deal stood in media appearances following the tweet.

Australia has refused to resettle any refugee arriving by boat since July 2013, whatever their circumstances, instead paying Pacific nations to detain them while searching for other countries to take the arrivals permanently.

After the transfer deal was struck with the US in November, Mr Turnbull said: "Our priority is the resettlement of woman, children and families.

"This will be an orderly process. It will take time. It will not be rushed."

He has declined to comment on his phone call with Mr Trump but said he would "stand up for Australia".


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thetimes.co.uk


February 9, 2017 Thursday 12:01 AM GMT 


Claims of betrayal as door shuts on refugee children


BYLINE: Richard Ford, Home Correspondent


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 587 words


Theresa May was accused of being on the "wrong side of history" last night after a scheme to bring vulnerable child refugees to Britain was shut down.

Only 350 unaccompanied children will have been welcomed under the Dubs scheme by the time it is wound down in the next few weeks. Refugee campaigners had called for 3,000 children to benefit.

The scheme is to end because of a lack of local authority accommodation and limits on the amount of care that councils can provide for children with "pressing and difficult needs". 

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, accused the prime minister of coming close to the "policies of Trump" by closing the programme.

Lord Dubs, a Labour peer who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport and whose successful amendment introduced the new scheme, appealed to the prime minister not to "shut the door" to vulnerable refugee children. "Today Theresa May put Britain on the wrong side of history. To our country's shame, she has decided to shut down the Dubs scheme, which promised child refugees a safe future in the UK," Lord Dubs said.

"We fought tooth and nail to win this last year. I won't let it slip away."

He said that the Dubs amendment was a promise to honour the proud British tradition of welcoming those most in need. "I saw that compassion and courage in Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued me as a child from the Nazi regime, along with 669 Jewish children," he added.

Mr Farron accused the prime minister of betraying vulnerable children, adding: "May's treatment of refugee children is appalling, and shows how close she has moved to the policies of Trump."

Robert Goodwill, immigration minister, told MPs that local councils had said that they had capacity to provide places for only 400 unaccompanied child asylum seekers until the end of next month.

In a written ministerial statement he said that 200 child refugees had already been transferred from France to Britain under the Dubs scheme and that a further transfer of 150 would bring the total number to 350.

The Home Office says 50 local government places are needed for family reunion cases involving children transferred from the clearance of the Calais camp that do not work out.

The immigration minister said 900 lone child refugees had been transferred to Britain from France last year, including 750 as part of the clearance of the Calais refugee camp known as the Jungle. They included the first group of 200 children under the Dubs amendment.

The legislation that led to the Dubs scheme did not specify a figure on the number of under-18s to come to the UK but campaigners and MPs estimated that up to 3,000 could arrive, although the Home Office privately said it would be in the hundreds.

Mr Farron said: "Last May MPs from all parties condemned the government's inaction on child refugees in Europe and voted overwhelmingly to offer help to the thousands of unaccompanied kids who were stranded without their families, backed by huge public support. Instead the government has done the bare minimum, helping only a tiny number of youngsters and appearing to end the programme while thousands still suffer."

Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the home affairs select committe, said: "To close the programme that helps lone child refugees after helping only 350 children is completely wrong."

A Home Office spokeswoman said that the government was not giving up on vulnerable children fleeing conflict and danger and that in the past year the UK had provided refuge or other forms of leave to more than 8,000 children.


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to "ship the next Boston bombers" to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1313 words



Donald Trump slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

On Thursday afternoon the newly-elected president took to Twitter to slam the Obama administration for agreeing to take on the refugees in the first place. 

'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!,' he wrote. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump abruptly hung up on Mr Turnbull after just 25 minutes - when the pair were meant to speak for an hour.

But an indignant Mr Turnbull returned serve, telling 2GB's Ben Fordham: 'As far as the call is concerned, I'm very disappointed, the report the president hung up is not correct, the call ended courteously.' 

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about pleasant exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders. 

President Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 genuine refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, telling Mr Turnbull: 'I don't want these people'.

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement. 

Sky News sources claim President Trump was 'yelling' at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation, which took place on Saturday afternoon Washington time, Sunday morning Australian time.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, President Trump ended the conversation.

'During call with Australian PM on refugees, Trump pulled phone away from ear and says he wants off call, which ends abruptly per source,' CNN reporter Jim Acosta tweeted.

Under the agreement reached with the Obama administration, Australian would take a number of South American refugees, currently in a processing center in Costa Rica, in return.

These refugees are predominantly Christian, according to reports.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Sky News reporter Laura Jayes said Australian government sources who took part in discussions after the call said Mr Turnbull viewed the president as a 'bully'. 

'What I derived from that was Malcolm Turnbull used this phone call to push back,' Ms Jayes said.

'He wasn't just sitting there being berated by Donald Trump, he talked about how important it was for (Trump) to honour the deal.'

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that President Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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dailyrecord.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:23 PM GMT 


Oscar nominated Iranian film director unable to attend awards ceremony after Trump's Muslim ban;
Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film but may not be able to gain entry into the US for the ceremony.


BYLINE: By Record Reporter


SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT,CELEBRITY NEWS


LENGTH: 1269 words


An Oscar nominated director might not be allowed into the US to attend the ceremony after Donald Trump banned nationals from seven Muslin countries.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

However, President Trump announced that nationals from seven Muslim countries will no longer be issued visas to enter America.

Donald Trump snapped holding hands with Theresa May while walking outside White House

The renowned filmmaker has already won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation. 

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country.

President Trump has also ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

Trump also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to nationals from six other mainly-Muslim nations including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

However, his move has caused outrage among many people and organisations.

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Is this why Melania's face dropped at Donald Trump's inauguration? Viewers think they've spotted cause

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

All quiet at President Trump's Turnberry resort as he is sworn in as 45th US leader

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

'We might have to build our own wall' English rugby star Martin Offiah infuriates Scots

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Donald Trump trolled by former Mexican president who destroys his "f*****g wall" plans with one brilliant tweet

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."


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The Guardian(London)


April 4, 2017 Tuesday 9:00 PM GMT 


'Disaster alley': Australia could be set to receive new wave of climate refugees;
US defence expert warns people fleeing low-lying Pacific islands a precursor to 'climate-exacerbated water insecurities' that could trigger wider conflict


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: ENVIRONMENT; Version:1


LENGTH: 1154 words


Australia could be on the frontline of a new wave of "climate refugees" displaced by extreme weather events, droughts and rising seas, a US expert on the national security impacts of climate change has warned.

Sherri Goodman, a former US deputy undersecretary of defence, argues the impact of climate change - rising seas, extreme weather, prolonged droughts - will be a "threat multiplier" for sepacurity challenges, and could be the spark that ignites conflict and drives new waves of mass forced migration.

The Asia-Pacific region was acutely vulnerable, she said. 

Related: Lives in the balance: climate change and the Marshall Islands

"You may be on the frontlines here in Australia for climate refugees," she told the Guardian in Sydney. "The first wave will be those who have to flee the low-lying Pacific islands, because many of them will be uninhabitable, even in our lifetimes."

"But you're also in 'disaster alley' here in the Asia-Pacific region and while there have begun to be efforts to reduce risks of disasters, I'm concerned that we're not acting as quickly as we should to protect our societies from those risks, which is going to mean more migration."

Goodman cited the example of the ongoing civil war in Syria, which has produced more than five million refugees over six years of fighting.

But the political conflict in Syria was exacerbated by a long-running drought which drove people into food insecurity, poverty and rapid, unsustainable urbanisation.

"From 2006 to 2010, 60% of Syria had its worst long-term drought and crop failures since civilisation began," Goodman says. "About 800,000 people in rural areas lost their livelihood by 2009. Three million people were driven into extreme poverty, and 1.5 million migrated to cities."

"Those conditions enable terrorists like the Islamic State of Boko Haram in parts of Nigeria or al-Qaida in Iraq to rise and take advantage of desperate people in desperate circumstances."

Goodman is careful not to posit climate change as the sole cause of future conflicts, but argues it will be a contributory, compounding factor.

"Climate is a threat multiplier because it aggravates others tensions and conflicts that already exist.

"Climate-exacerbated water insecurities could eventually become a tipping [point] to wider conflict or instability in the region. We see this now playing out in various ways around the world, but particularly here in the Asia-Pacific region."

Regionally, Goodman sees the example of Pakistan and India, where historical enmity, long-running religious, political and cultural fractures, and territorial disputes over Kashmir, could be reignited by conflict over water or other resources.

Low-lying Bangladesh, the eighth-most populous country in the world with more than 160 million people, has been identified as being extremely vulnerable to climate change, on some measures the most vulnerable country in the world.

Related: On the climate change frontline: the disappearing fishing villages of Bangladesh #GlobalWarning

"Another extreme weather event, combined with sea-level rise and storm surge, could send upwards up 10 million people or more along that low-lying coastline in Bangladesh fleeing towards higher ground, which is towards India, which is building a massive wall to keep Bangladeshis out.

"I think that could create consequences for which we're currently unprepared. India shows no signs of wanting or being able to absorb those numbers of refugees. And then where do they flee? These are mostly people who can't afford to get on a cruise ship and leave. And if they can't flee by land into India does that mean they, there's either a massive loss of life or head off in rickety boats, where they might lose their lives at sea."

In 2008, the then president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, speculated about buying land in Australia in order to house his country's population when the archipelago nation was consumed by the rising Indian Ocean.

Under the global standard for refugee protection, the 1951 refugee convention, there is no such thing as a "climate change refugee".

The refugee convention, written in the aftermath of the massive displacement caused by the second world war, only recognises refugees displaced from their home countries, and suffering a " well-founded fear of persecution " on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

Some regional treaties - such as Latin America's Cartagena declaration - have a broader definition, recognising as refugees people displaced by "circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order", which is taken to include natural disasters and food insecurity.

Goodman argues national governments, and supranational organisations, will need to redraw, or add to, the current global protection framework.

"We do need to rethink the governance for refugees better to reflect the types of refugees we face today. Current governance structures are just inadequate for the modern era."

Governments and militaries around the world are becoming increasingly cognisant of the national security threat posed by climate change.

In his confirmation hearing in January, the US's new secretary of defence, James Mattis, said climate change posed a current security threat to America.

"Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today. It is appropriate for the combatant commands to incorporate drivers of instability that impact the security environment in their areas into their planning."

In 2015, Australia's Climate Council released a report, co-authored by the former chief of the Australian defence force, Chris Barrie, that argued climate change "poses a significant and growing threat to human and societal wellbeing, threatening food, water, health and national security".

Related: Five Pacific islands lost to rising seas as climate change hits

In 2016, the army chief, Angus Campbell, made climate security a focus of the annual chief of army's exercise. He said climate change was "immediately relevant" for militaries and "the scale of climate change problems, their unpredictability, and the level of support required from land forces are key issues for us to better understand".

The Centre for Policy Development policy director, Rob Sturrock, co-authored a report in 2015 arguing that Australia's struggle to deal with climate vulnerabilities domestically and across the region was the country's "longest conflict".

The report recommended the federal government appoint a climate security advisory council, connecting the defence, environment and foreign affairs departments to develop a national climate security strategy.

Goodman, founder of the CNA Military Advisory Board, is speaking in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne this week at screenings of The Age of Consequences documentary, about the security threat posed by climate change.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 18, 2017 Thursday 8:50 PM GMT 


Jordan's Azraq refugee camp becomes first to run entirely on solar energy;
UNHCR hails development as 'a milestone' for 36,000 Syrians living in desert camp


BYLINE: Chloe Farand


SECTION: MIDDLE EAST; Version:1


LENGTH: 503 words


A refugee camp in Jordan has become the first in the world to be powered by renewable energy.

About 20,000 Syrian refugees living in the desertcamp of Azraqwill be able to useelectricity generated by a solar plant. 

The new$9.6m (£7.49m) two-megawatt solar plant was built by the IkeaFoundation's Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign and is expected to save $1.5m (£1.15m) a year, which the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees will be able to use to improve sanitation, shelters and organise activitiesaround the camp.

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"Today marks a milestone," said Kelly TClements, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner.

"Lighting up the camp is not only a symbolic achievement; it provides a safer environment for all camp residents, opens up livelihoods opportunities, and gives children the chance to study after dark. Above all, it allows all residents of the camps to lead more dignified lives," he said.

Mr Clements praised the plant as "a remarkable example of cooperation" between the government of Jordan, private solar company Mustakbal and UNHCR.

The clean energy is due to be expanded to the 36,000 refugees living in the camp in Jordan's barren northern desert by early next year.

For the past two and a half years, refugees living in Azraq were reliant on portable solar lanterns to light their homesand had no means of preserving food or cooling their shelters in the extreme desert heat.

Electricity was first introduced in January and changed the way of lifein the camp.

Fatima, a 52-year-old single mother from rural Damascus, who has lived in the camp since 2015 with her two adult sons, said electricity in the camp had enabled her family to preserveleftover food, have a cold glass of water and continue daily activities after sunset.

"In Syria we were used to a particular lifestyle, and then we were disconnected from it when we became refugees. For someone who is used to having electricity, you cannot imagine how difficult it is to live without it," she said.

More than 50 refugees from the camp also benefited from training and were employed under the supervision of Jordanian solar company Mustakbal to help build the plant.

Mohammad, 20, from the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, was one of those who worked to build the frames that support the solar panels and installed the plant's electrical circuits.

Now he hopes his new skills will enable him to help rebuild Syria after the war.

He said: "I wasn't able to finish my education because of the war and then exile, but this has given me a practical skill that I can hopefully use in the future.

"If we return to Syria, the infrastructure is all destroyed, but this is a technology that we could use to rebuild."

Azraq's solar plant is connected to Jordan's national grid and the surplus electricity will be sent back for local communities to use for free.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 9, 2017 Tuesday 4:49 PM GMT 


French authorities bus hundreds of refugees out of Paris to accommodation centres across France;
Large-scale evacuation comes two days afterelection of Emmanuel Macron, who hasindicated he does not want refugees living rough in Franceas they wait for UK asylum decisions


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:2


LENGTH: 570 words


Hundreds of refugees have been bussed out of Paris and taken to emergency accommodation acrossFrance during alarge-scale evacuation ofa settlement close to the Eurostar train station.

Around 350 officers were involved in moving on about 1,000 mostly Afghan and Sudanese peoplewho had been sleeping under the bridges at Porte de la Chapelle and the surrounding areas.

The destruction of the camp area comes two days after the election of Emmanuel Macron as President of France, who has already indicated that he does not want refugees living rough in his country as they wait to get to test their asylum applications in the UK. 

Read more

Paris authorities tell volunteers stop distributing food to refugees

Following the child refugee trail through the streets of Paris

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Instead, the French President-electwould far rather they were allowed to travel straight across the Channel so as to be processed as soon as possible.

A police spokesman in Paris said: "These illegal camps present a major risk for the security and health of their occupants as well as for local residents. Clearance of the camp started soon after dawn, and was completed later in the morning.'

The makeshift camp was a few hundred yards away from an official refugee centre, where men can live for two weeks before moving on.

Queues to get into the facility have been forming every morning and people are frequentlyrejected, which has led to them congregating nearby.

One local aid worker, who asked to be referred to by his first name of Ralph, said: "It's true it has become amagnet for lots of migrants. They get here hoping to enjoy food and lodging, and are then told they are not welcome. So they sleep rough nearby, and then the police move them on. It is an impossible situation. All they want is to be allowed to go straight to Britain."

Last October, some 8,000 men, women and children were shifted out of Calais when the so-called 'Jungle' refugee camp was destroyed.

It had built up because of an Anglo-French agreement signed in Le Touquet, the northern seaside town where Mr Macron owns a holiday home, which enables British border officials to checkasylum seekers' status in France.

Responding to the evacuation, charity Help Refugees said: "Many of those living in the streets in Paris are there because they want to claim asylum in France. We hope that with roofs over their heads their asylum claims can be heard and processed.

"Our partner organisations estimate that 80 per centof minors in Paris are deemed to be over 18 when they are in fact significantly younger. The process for contesting this age assessment is long and requires support and an understanding of a complex system. It is incredibly challenging to contest with no fixed accommodation and no support from the authorities.

"There are serious concerns for the safety and security of these young people, many of whom may now be in centres with no provisions for children."

During the EU referendum campaign, Mr Macron vowed to tear up Le Touquet if the UK voted for Brexit, saying at the time: "The day this relationship [between Britain andthe UK] unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais."

On a separate occasion, during a visit to London, Mr Macron said: "I want to put the Le Touquet border deal back on the table. It must be renegotiated, especially the parts that deal with the fate of isolated child migrants."


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FinancialWire


April 19, 2017 Wednesday


Radio Legend Barry Farber Revisits His Role in the Hungarian Revolution


LENGTH: 725 words


On the heels of its 60th Anniversary last October, the Hungarian Freedom Fight arranged an email announcing the Government of Hungary's citation of Barry Farber for his assistance to the people during and after the Hungarian Revolution. Below are some details of his mission..........(Some dialogue spoken in first person to capture the true realism of Farber) 



Barry worked with a team led by Ambassador Thorvalt Stoltenberg of Norway who later became foreign minister of Norway. His son, Jens, is now secretary-general of NATO. Stoltenberg led the "Freedom Navy", consisting of one inflatable rubber raft, two oars and young people from as many as seventeen countries.

The refugees were led by guides who knew the territory. They, arrived in groups of about 40 all through the night and huddle on the far bank of the Einser Canal. Barry's boatmen helped these refugees up the ridge to freedom and safety in Austria. Afterwards, he wound up finding homes, jobs, English lessons, and a variety of other things for refugees resettling in Greensboro, North Carolina.

One of the intricate details of this mission was time. Knowing the time limitations of these rescue attempts, it was well explained that high drama erupted at dawn. What ensued after dawn can be explained by the sequence of events below....

As taken from one of the Irish boys came running up the ridge yelling, "Another load of refugees is waiting across the canal." Like an animated cartoon in quadruple time we cut the raft back down, ran back to the canal and started our operation again. That "late arrival" was enough to strike terror by itself. To multiply the tension, there was a light far away deep into Hungary. The only ones who'd use flashlights were the bad guys. And day was dawning.

In the confusion the first raft-load of refugees got pulled with each boatman thinking the other one was on the raft with his paddle. So there we were. Raft and one load of refugees on our side of the canal with no paddle; forty or so refugees on the far side with our two boatmen and no raft. And the Communist troops with the lights were headed our way. I was second man on the rope. Thorvalt Stoltenberg was first. Without an instant's hesitation he belly-flopped into the raft and tried to paddle across with his bare hands. It was fruitless. He couldn't fight the current which took him downstream.

Suddenly Thorvalt spotted a stick of some kind jutting up out of the water. He grabbed it and fortunately it was not rotted. He successfully paddled his way across the water thereby putting our boatmen and their paddles on the same side along with the refugees. We worked feverishly and got the last raft-load of refugees across before the light in the woods got too close.

The above is a true enactment of a well known time in history. Not only does it cover all the finite details, but it brings you firsthand knowledge of the finite details that can only be told by someone on the frontline. Now Barry will spend the rest of his life wondering what would of happened if he would have belly-flopped into that raft with the bad guys closing in and the sun coming up revealing our position. Only Barry himself knows how to answer that.

About Barry Farber:

On the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution the Hungarian Government honored Barry "for activities during and after the Hungarian Revolution." Barry's southern accent betrays his Phi Beta Kappa intellect. He says, "A southern accent is the world's best substitute for having something to say!"

Barry has plenty to say and he'd like to say it on your station, too. He's a "stomp-down conservative" but the most frequent theme in his fan mail is liberal listeners declaring, "I don't like your politics at all but even worse is missing your show!" If you've got room for Barry's one-hour show across the board we can make it very easy for you to join the excitement.

To Book this guest, please send an email to: dawn@mediaproductions.tv

TO CARRY HIS SHOW CONTACT Dawn Curtis at the following email: dawn@mediaproductions.tv

If your response is needed ASAP please use (267) 241-1669.

Media Contact

Company Name: Dawn Curtis

Contact Person: Tony Cutillo, Publicist

Email: confirmations@mediaproductions.tv

Country: United States

Website: http://crntalk.com/barryfarber/

Source: www.abnewswire.com





(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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Belfast Telegraph Online


January 26, 2017 Thursday 9:22 AM GMT 


How we're bringing hope to refugees fleeing from terror;
Co Down musician Tommy Sands is supporting a humanitarian effort to help refugees forced to flee their homelands. Linda Stewart talks to the singer, an Argentinian nurse Lidia Lammardo and Rostrevor aid worker Johnny Clark about the tough camp conditions


SECTION: FEATURES


LENGTH: 1424 words


Young people working with Youth With a Mission in Rostrevor witnessed shocking scenes after they travelled to refugee camps in France and Lebanon, bringing clothes and medical supplies.

People in Rostrevor helped to raise (EURO)5,000 in order for the group to buy enough wood for refugees at the camp near Dunkirk to make it through the winter, yet 11 people have already died of hypothermia.

Co Down musician Tommy Sands, who has supported the group for many years through the Music for Healing events aimed at bringing politicians together to talk, described the help provided by the Rostrevor people as a "great thing".

"There are so many people losing their homes and at a time when we see refugees as people taking jobs or getting in the way. We have to bear in mind that many of them are coming from war-torn places," he adds. 

"Very often the arms are going there from our western world and there are refugees fleeing from climate change which has been brought on by our industrial world," he claims. "If you export arms, you must not complain when you import refugees," is his hard-hitting message.

The group is currently collecting sleeping bags and shoes, particularly trainers for men, for their trip in three weeks' time.

'All the people tell stories of family members being killed'

Lidia Lammardo (44), from Argentina, has just returned from the camp near Dunkirk in France. She says:

I used to work as a nurse and wanted to take part in this project because I wanted to use my skills. I wanted to get involved in this.

As part of the group I lived in Belfast and took teams from Poleglass, the Shankill and the Falls to the Palestinian Territories and Israel to do community work.

This was the first time I have gone to the camp in France and my experience is that it has probably been the hardest, but I'm glad that I was involved.

The whole village of Rostrevor was involved in this initiative to bring clothes and hats in 10 suitcases.

When we got there we realised how hard the conditions are. All the people have stories of family members being killed. They are in France, but they know it is temporary and they live in constant fear of being deported back to where they know they will be killed.

There was a 16-year-old Kurdish boy who worked with the military in his homeland as a translator when they were infiltrating the village. But the military moved away and when Isis moved in, he and other boys were in danger for their lives so they had to run away.

The land for the camp was acquired by Medecins Sans Frontieres from a private owner and they have built a kids' centre where children come and stay for a few hours in safety. There is a women's centre, too, and a communal kitchen.

The worst part is the cold, the sickness and general hopeless atmosphere. When the temperature drops to -5C, the mud freezes. And there is nowhere to stay except the huts, nowhere to relax or sleep well.

There are people from Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria and also some Iranian Christians who fled because they were being persecuted and threatened with death.

Everything is grey and cold. People try not to get up early in the morning because it is freezing. Ten to 20 volunteers cook lentil soup every day in big pots. Everything takes hours to cook when you are feeding that number of people.

They have fruit and lentil soup for breakfast, and at 2pm lunch is served by a French organisation which previously worked at The Jungle camp, near Calais

The refugees are not sitting around through choice. It has really struck me that they are forced to do nothing, but that is not what they want. They come to help the volunteers cook.

There is one man, Mohammed, who is a professional chef and he will come in the afternoon and chop vegetables for three hours in order to help.

When I got the chance to have a chat with him, he said his mother, father, brother and sisters had their necks cut by Isis. In that moment he started to cry suddenly - we couldn't speak.

I asked him 'why did he want to go to the UK?' and he said the only person he has left is a childhood friend of his mother who lives in the UK. There is a yearning for that sense of belonging. There are a lot of single men because they were the ones that were able to run.  Their families and young kids were killed and they were the only ones who were able to escape.

What does it take to be a man who has run away because all his family have been killed? He doesn't even want to be alive.

Most of them, to be honest, want to come to the UK because they have some family member or a community there. They want safety.

But they want the ability to work with their hands and work as part of a community. They don't want to be receiving charity."

'The children are out all day doing hard manual work with their mum'

Jonny Clark (42), married to Jenny with three boys, brings groups to the refugee settlement in Lebanon. He says:

We run a retreat centre here in Rostrevor, a charity. It's a Christian organisation with all sorts of people from all over the world. We are trying to develop a social conscience in young people and a heart for reconciliation to become bridge builders.

A big part of that is using our faith in action rather than words. Our volunteers are trained for work in refugee camps, in what to do and how to approach people. We send groups out to Burundi, Lebanon and Dunkirk where there are refugee camps.

In Lebanon we are working in two areas - we are talking to people about the power of forgiveness, trying to help people in Lebanon who are suffering from the trauma of civil war. We are also going into refugee homes every day, visiting families, taking clothes and very basic medical supplies. We work with an organisation that helps to run a school - we do practical work, clean and teach English.

There are 1.5 million refugees in a country of four million and the government doesn't really want refugees - they're not trying to keep them there and not keen on helping them.

Almost all of the refugees there are Syrians fleeing the civil war. Almost everyone has stories of family members that were shot.

The very first tent we went into in the camp at the village of Damour, we found that the husband had been killed. The family were from a city in Syria and the husband was taken. He was found a few days later - he had been tortured, killed and left for dead. The two young girls and their mum had to flee to safety.

In the school the teacher was teaching the 'R' sound and said 'Rrrm' for the sound of a car and a little girl said 'Rrrm for car and ooooh for rocket'.

Every child has experienced significant trauma and war - it's just normal. You're not going to leave your home and take your family to Lebanon where you're not wanted unless you have to.

Lebanon doesn't have traditional refugee camps - land has to be rented to put the tents on and the refugees are not allowed to earn money. They are only allowed to carry out manual work at a banana plantation for a stipend.

A lot of them get up early, cook early and go to work in the banana plantation. They've got kids who do it as well - they're going out with their mum, doing hard manual work all day and coming home very tired late at night.

They're very much reliant on the aid that we get from the United Nations - it gives a stipend, but that is being reduced every year because the money is running out.

It's a hard life - snow in the winter and very hot in summer. Some of the families live in little derelict huts but most of them live in tents. There's another camp at the Bekaa valley where there are whole fields covered in tents.

It's very common for people to get sick. There are quite a few pregnant women and sometimes they have secondary issues, yet they will be out working in the fields all day on the banana plantation.

We brought a couple of dentists with one group and they were able to bring some basic dental kits with them, and on another trip we brought a GP who was able to carry out very simple checks.

They don't have very much money and if you need a doctor you have to pay.

They will get a permit for a year and then when it runs out they have to leave, but often they don't - they just stay illegally sometimes.

But you get the feeling that none of them want to live there. They are hoping the war will end in Syria and they can go home, or they find a way of getting out of Lebanon, getting to Turkey and into Europe."

Anyone wishing to help or donate can contact Youth With A Mission visit ywamrostrevor.org/


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Express Online


January 5, 2017 Thursday 2:42 PM GMT 


EXPOSED: Migrant camps are 'hotbed for terrorism' says whistleblower in CHILLING REPORT


BYLINE: Zoie O'Brien and Monika Pallenberg


LENGTH: 871 words


MIGRANT camps have been described as "hotbeds for terrorism" by a journalist who posed as an asylum-seeker and lived in 35 different makeshift homes.

GETTY/ Facebook

Shams ul-Haq posed as a refugee in Germany

Pakistan born Shams ul-Haq even described how he was barely questioned when he gave a fake name to access a camp in Berlin. 

The journalist migrated to Germany 26 years ago as an unaccompanied underage asylum seeker but decided to throw himself back into the world of refugees to see what was really going on.

Mr Haq reported his expose in German publication Morgen Post. He said: "I did not shave for five days and didn't sleep for two, got an old pair of trouser out of the basement, and then I looked like an asylum seeker. 

"In Berlin I went to the Lageso, where thousands of people had been waiting in the cold at night to take a number. When it was finally my turn, I gave them a fake name, told a story about where I came from, and said that I needed asylum.

"No, nobody asked me much, and no one checked anything that I told them."

GETTY

The camp within the Tempelhof Airport hangar houses thousands of asylum seekers who are 'bored' Related articles Refugees taking German government to court over 'partial' visas Asylum seeker overdue for deportation 'RAPES TEENAGE GIRL' in toilet

He went on to stay in camps in Potsdam and Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany, using 10 different identities.

In some places the journalist had his fingerprints taken - but the identities were never matched up.

He said: "The system does not work and I know employees from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees or from the Federal Criminal Police Office, who tell me that it has not worked so far. 

"In my case, no-one noticed any of my double registrations, although I had my fingerprints registered in some cases."

Facebook

Journalist Shams ul-Haq revealed cracks in the asylum system

Mr ul-Haq stayed in the infamous Tempelhof Airport hangar where sex assault among refugees have been rife and conditions widely criticised.

He said: "This is the largest refugee home in Germany, and there is an incredible amount of problems. 

"In my opinion, nobody can be expected to live there. Earlier on, the lights were switched on at night, so you could hardly sleep. 

"At least this is different now. Then the toilets. They stink, and I find that they can hardly be used. Many people don't like the food, and there was also sexual abuse among the refugees. 

"In addition, many people from different countries live together, which leads to conflicts and struggles.

"The worst thing is that people have nothing to do. They hang around all day without any occupation. Some of them get into mischief.

"Refugee camps are a breeding ground for salafists and terrorists. Sometimes it is said that Germany was importing terrorists. When in fact we breed them ourselves.

"There are appeals from Salafists. They shave off their beards and offer help to relief organisations. 

"I noticed that myself. Then they talk to the refugees, invite them to dinner, and take them to a mosque marked by Salafists. In Berlin, for example, this is the Al-Nur-Mosque in Neukölln. This is how refugees fall in the wrong hands.

The now German citizen, Mr ul-Haq, was shown pictures of people as they posed with weapons in Syria.

One, he claims, told him of how he fought for al-Nusra in Syria.

Related articles Child migrants will cost the taxpayer £25m a year Germany NEEDS to establish 'DEPORTATION CENTRES' to send back migrants

However, home-grown jihadis are being created as the German government struggles to place the refugees.

Mr ul-Haq described boredom as a factor in radicalisation as migrants become disenchanted with Germany.

He said they become targets as their anger at the living situation increases.

The reporter said: "During dinner they sit in the accommodation, the food does not taste nice, they are bored, and they are annoyed because the asylum procedure lasts so long. Then someone incites them and says that the Germans are all infidels. Then a dangerous dynamic can develop."

Improvements could be made, small changes, the journalist claims, which would vastly improve the lives of the migrant such as social activities.

Related videos Chaos as protestors storm migrant camp in Arzon Violence erupts as refugees set Greek migrant camp on fire Fire destroys HUGE migrant camp in Italy

GETTY

Camps across Germany were 'easy' for the journalist who gave ten different names

He said there do exist camps in which people are happy and do not wish to travel to 'problematic' mosques.

He said: "A year ago nobody believed me when I told them what was going on. But I think the taxpayers have a right to know.

"It is a good thing that Germany was so compassionate and accepted them. But some abuse this generosity and I believe it is right to educate people about it. 

"I consider the number of refugees who are problematic, to be very small. But there will be more. And there will be more if the conditions in the accommodations do not improve."

Related articles EU CRACKS DEEPEN: Germany and ECB set for showdown as inflation soa... Merkel fears Germany's relations with US when Trump becomes president Merkel's refugee policy shattering as ministers demand migrant cap


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 6:56 PM GMT 


Is this a Muslim ban? Trump's executive order explained;
The immediate consequences have been dire for everyone including valid visa holders and legal residents, and lawsuits have already begun - but the orders' vagueness leaves much up in the air


BYLINE: Alan Yuhas


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1570 words


What has the order done?


Related: US airports on frontline as Trump immigration ban causes chaos and controversy 



What are the immediate consequences?



How have Americans reacted?



Have any Republicans broken with Trump?

Related: Donald Trump's first week: carnage, both real and imagined | Tom McCarthy


While not technically a Muslim ban, this order is too broad. There are two ways to lose our generational battle against jihadism by losing touch with reality. The first is to keep pretending that jihadi terrorism has no connection to Islam or to certain countries. That's been a disaster. And here's the second way to fail: If we send a signal to the Middle East that the US sees all Muslims as jihadis, the terrorist recruiters win by telling kids that America is banning Muslims and that this is America versus one religion. Both approaches are wrong, and both will make us less safe. Our generational fight against jihadism requires wisdom."

What are the legal challenges to the ban?



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China Daily European Edition


February 17, 2017 Friday


Why is the refugee crisis so hard for the EU to handle?


BYLINE: Iain Begg


SECTION: FROM CHINESE PRESS


LENGTH: 1352 words


After the horrific attack on the Berlin Christmas market, the EU's approach to refugees is once more in the headlines. In his 2016 'state of the union' address, delivered on the 14th of September to the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, stated that:

'When it comes to managing the refugee crisis, we have started to see solidarity. I am convinced much more solidarity is needed. But I also know that solidarity must be given voluntarily. It must come from the heart. It cannot be forced'.

Few however, would agree with his broadly optimistic tone, because the issue manifestly divides the EU at present, with some seeing it through the lens of moral obligations to assist fellow humans at risk, while others see migration more a threat to security and national identity. The nub of the refugee problem for the EU is that the capacity to deal with it lies with the individual Member States, not the EU collectively. Some, such as Germany, following Angela Merkel's moral commitment to the open doors approach, now cruelly challenged in Berlin, have been willing to accept substantial numbers, but others, for differing reasons have resisted, 

Plainly, the sheer number of displaced persons is a global challenge and is not confined to the EU. Syrian refugees alone account for some 5 million. The fall of Aleppo may, at last, signal an end to the Syrian civil war, but displaced Syrians still represent a major challenge for the EU as a close neighbour, with some 4 million in camps in Lebanon, Jordan and, especially, Turkey. By contrast, around 1.1 million Syrian applications for asylum have been received in Europe since 2011. Most of those now in Europe, are concentrated in Germany (their preferred destination), Greece and Serbia (both transit countries); only a handful of other EU countries have been willing to accept more than a few thousand Syrians. The difficulty in the EU, as a whole, is not the overall capacity to absorb refugees, but the politics of how to share the burden..

The evident preference of migrants to be settled in Germany, Sweden or (at least for some) the UK also has to be taken into account. For the UK, the scale of immigration was much the most powerful argument for voting to leave the EU. The concern for UK voters was mobility of EU workers, a right enshrined in the Union's single market, but in the referendum campaign, it became conflated with the refugee problem, even though the latter is an entirely separate issue.

A solution proposed at the European level was to have national quotas for taking-in displaced persons, but this has proved to be politically unacceptable, especially to the countries of central and Eastern Europe. They argue that an influx of Muslim refugees would undermine their national identity in what are predominantly Christian countries and have raised questions about security. Leaders of these countries also argue that, in any case, the refugees want to go to Western Europe and would simply leave if they are initially settled in Poland or Hungary. At the informal summit of EU leaders held in Slovakia in mid-September, the Germans (who had been the strongest advocates of quotas, along with the European Commission) accepted that the idea would have to be abandoned and it was noticeably absent from the conclusions of the December European Council..

German and Swedish citizens, meanwhile, complain that their countries are being asked to shoulder an unfair burden and have become increasingly hostile to their governments' positions on migrants. The Berlin attack, with the federal election in German now just a few months away, means that the refugee policy will inevitably become an even more heated campaign issue, likely to give momentum to the right-wind populists of the Alternative für Deutschland part which is taking votes from Merkel.

The political problem for Europe is compounded by the number of economic migrants from economically poorer areas, such as sub-Saharan Africa, also keen to move to Europe. The distinction between a refugee and an economic migrant is analytically clear, but blurred in practice. Many of those eventually moved from the 'jungle' camp in Calais in northern France, were qualified workers simply looking for better jobs in the United Kingdom. Who paid people smugglers to help them to evade UK controls. Many deliberately destroy their identity documents to enable them to be treated as refugees.

Europe as a whole lacks a political basis for a solution. A deal with Turkey eased the immediate pressure on Europe because it resulted in a much stricter control of illegal movement from the Turkish coast to the Greek islands - a sea-crossing of just a few kilometres to the islands closest to the Turkish mainland. Some attempt has also been made to curb the number of boats sailing from the Libyan coast to Italy. But control cannot be a comprehensive or lasting answer and EU relations with both Turkey and the various factions controlling Libya are strained.

Instead, in the longer-term, the EU will have to come up with a range of policy initiatives. A first is geo-political: so long as conflicts continue (not just in Syria, but also in the horn of Africa), there will be a steady outflow of refugees, hence the need for more effective attempts to resolve the conflicts.

Second, the EU, as one of the richest global regions has a moral responsibility to develop a policy for absorbing and resettling refugees, but it will also face harder choices about how welcoming to be to economic migrants. Several EU countries, including Germany, Italy and Finland are on the cusp of a decline in their population because of demographic trends, but others are not, and this adds to the complexity of the policy decisions.

The third element in a tricky package will be how to revise the rules on refugees, given the sheer numbersarriving. The current arrangement, based on what is known as the Dublin convention, is for refugees to be registered in the country in which they arrive in the EU, but this manifestly puts excessive pressure on the frontline states, especially Italy and Greece.

One dimension of this will be the budgetary cost of processing and accommodating migrants. For Greece, already facing acute pressures on its public finances, the extra burden is a major concern, making it likely that the common EU budget will be called upon to contribute more. However, several of the net contributors to the EU budget may resist taking on new commitments, not least because Brexit will already mean a net loss for the EU's finances.

Then there is security. Rightly or not, many European governments fear that large-scale migration will make it easier for terrorists to enter their countries by pretending to be displaced persons, something the Berlin attack, (and the November 2015 attacks in Paris) can only have reinforced. Populist parties, such as in France and the Netherlands, have played on this fear and the Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders was quick to blame Angela Merkel 's open door policy for what happened in Berlin.

Despite the intensity and intractability of the migration and refugee challenges, there are no real signs yet of any demand to abandon the Schengen agreement by restoring controls on the EU's internal borders. Like the euro and the single market, free movement inside the Schengen area is one of the defining features of European integration. But Schengen is facing criticism because of its links with the migrant crisis, and a weakening of it cannot be excluded, despite continuing support from mainstream political voices. Whether for EU workers looking for jobs in other countries or Chinese tourists who can take advantage of a single visa to visit so many countries, the risk is real and if Schengen is undermined, it will be widely seen as a further weakening of support for the EU in general.

Iain Beggis a Professorial Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Senior Fellow on the UK Economic and Social Research Council's initiative on The UK in a Changing Europe


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 10, 2017 Friday 4:00 PM GMT 


Dubs Amendment for child refugees: Full list of MPs who voted against the scheme;
Five Conservative MPs rebelled and voted to accommodate children fleeing war


BYLINE: Harry Cockburn


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 1181 words


The Government has scrapped a scheme to provide support and sanctuary to lone children fleeing war in Syria.

Just months after it was established, the Dubs Amendment has been ditched by Theresa May's Government on the eve of a parliamentary recess, in a move described as "shameful" by Lord Dubs, who brought in the measures to help child refugees.

The closure of the scheme has met with widespread censure. The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was "saddened and shocked" by its closure and appeared to compare the Government's position with that of Donald Trump. 

Read more

Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn

Charities unite in anger as government quietly scraps refugee promise

Corbyn's relaunch dubbed 'day of chaos' over immigration and high pay

Lord Dubs, who himself was a child refugee fleeing the Nazis, also condemned the anti-refugee sentiment coming from the US and the British Government.

He said: "At a time when Donald Trump is banning refugees from America, it would be shameful if the UK followed suit by closing down this route to sanctuary for unaccompanied children just months after it was opened."

The amendment was originally introduced to a bill designed to crack down on illegal immigration, and was designed to aid 3,000 children from war-ravaged countries.

To date only 350 children have benefitted from the scheme.

But Home Secretary Amber Rudd told MPs this week that the scheme was now "a magnet for people traffickers", and warned that the scheme for child refugees was "incentivising" migration.

Read more

Largest migration of human beings in the world underway in China

When the amendment to the bill was introduced in April 2016, it only narrowly scraped through the commons, with 294 MPs voting in favour of it against 276.

The move was supported by Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP and five Conservative MPs - Tania Mathews, Will Quince, Geoffrey Cox, David Warburton and Stephen Phillips.

At the time, the Conservatives' Mr Phillips explained why he supported the measure.

He said: "These children are already in Europe. They are alone, far from their families, they are cold, frightened, hungry, frequently without help or access to those who might help or protect them."

In total 289 Conservatives voted against the amendment. The remaining five votes came from Ukip, the Democratic Ulster Unionists and the Ulster Unionist Party.

Here is the list in full:

Conservatives

Adams, Nigel

Afriyie, Adam

Aldous, Peter

Allan, Lucy

Amess, Sir David

Andrew, Stuart

Ansell, Caroline

Argar, Edward

Atkins, Victoria

Bacon, Mr Richard

Baker, Mr Steve

Baldwin, Harriett

Barclay, Stephen

Baron, Mr John

Barwell, Gavin

Bebb, Guto

Bellingham, Sir Henry

Benyon, Richard

Beresford, Sir Paul

Berry, Jake

Berry, James

Bingham, Andrew

Blunt, Crispin

Bone, Mr Peter

Borwick, Victoria

Bottomley, Sir Peter

Bradley, Karen

Brady, Mr Graham

Brazier, Mr Julian

Brine, Steve

Brokenshire, rh James

Bruce, Fiona

Buckland, Robert

Burns, Conor

Burns, rh Sir Simon

Burrowes, Mr David

Burt, rh Alistair

Carmichael, Neil

Cartlidge, James

Cash, Sir William

Caulfield, Maria

Chalk, Alex

Chishti, Rehman

Chope, Mr Christopher

Churchill, Jo

Clark, rh Greg

Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth

Cleverly, James

Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey

Coffey, Dr Thérèse

Collins, Damian

Colvile, Oliver

Costa, Alberto

Crabb, rh Stephen

Davies, Byron

Davies, Glyn

Davies, Mims

Davies, Philip

Dinenage, Caroline

Djanogly, Mr Jonathan

Donelan, Michelle

Double, Steve

Dowden, Oliver

Doyle-Price, Jackie

Drax, Richard

Drummond, Mrs Flick

Duddridge, James

Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain

Dunne, Mr Philip

Ellis, Michael

Ellison, Jane

Ellwood, Mr Tobias

Elphicke, Charlie

Eustice, George

Evans, Graham

Evans, Mr Nigel

Evennett, rh Mr David

Fabricant, Michael

Fallon, rh Michael

Fernandes, Suella

Field, rh Mark

Foster, Kevin

Fox, rh Dr Liam

Frazer, Lucy

Freeman, George

Freer, Mike

Gale, Sir Roger

Garnier, rh Sir Edward

Garnier, Mark

Gauke, Mr David

Ghani, Nusrat

Gibb, Mr Nick

Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl

Glen, John

Goodwill, Mr Robert

Gove, rh Michael

Graham, Richard

Grant, Mrs Helen

Grayling, rh Chris

Green, Chris

Green, rh Damian

Grieve, rh Mr Dominic

Griffiths, Andrew

Gummer, Ben

Gyimah, Mr Sam

Halfon, rh Robert

Hall, Luke

Hammond, Stephen

Hancock, rh Matthew

Hands, rh Greg

Harper, rh Mr Mark

Harrington, Richard

Harris, Rebecca

Hart, Simon

Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan

Heald, Sir Oliver

Heappey, James

Heaton-Harris, Chris

Heaton-Jones, Peter

Henderson, Gordon

Herbert, rh Nick

Hinds, Damian

Hollobone, Mr Philip

Holloway, Mr Adam

Hopkins, Kris

Howarth, Sir Gerald

Howell, John

Howlett, Ben

Huddleston, Nigel

Hunt, rh Mr Jeremy

Hurd, Mr Nick

Jackson, Mr Stewart

Javid, rh Sajid

Jayawardena, Mr Ranil

Jenkin, Mr Bernard

Jenkyns, Andrea

Jenrick, Robert

Johnson, Boris

Johnson, Gareth

Johnson, Joseph

Jones, Andrew

Jones, rh Mr David

Jones, Mr Marcus

Kawczynski, Daniel

Kennedy, Seema

Kirby, Simon

Knight, rh Sir Greg

Knight, Julian

Kwarteng, Kwasi

Lancaster, Mark

Latham, Pauline

Leadsom, Andrea

Lee, Dr Phillip

Lefroy, Jeremy

Leigh, Sir Edward

Leslie, Charlotte

Letwin, rh Mr Oliver

Lewis, Brandon

Lewis, rh Dr Julian

Liddell-Grainger, Mr Ian

Lidington, rh Mr David

Lilley, rh Mr Peter

Lopresti, Jack

Lord, Jonathan

Loughton, Tim

Lumley, Karen

Mackinlay, Craig

Mackintosh, David

Main, Mrs Anne

Mak, Mr Alan

Malthouse, Kit

Mann, Scott

May, rh Mrs Theresa

Maynard, Paul

McCartney, Karl

McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick

McPartland, Stephen

Menzies, Mark

Merriman, Huw

Metcalfe, Stephen

Miller, rh Mrs Maria

Milling, Amanda

Mills, Nigel

Milton, rh Anne

Mordaunt, Penny

Morgan, rh Nicky

Morris, Anne Marie

Morris, David

Morris, James

Morton, Wendy

Mowat, David

Murray, Mrs Sheryll

Murrison, Dr Andrew

Newton, Sarah

Nokes, Caroline

Norman, Jesse

Nuttall, Mr David

Offord, Dr Matthew

Opperman, Guy

Parish, Neil

Patel, rh Priti

Paterson, rh Mr Owen

Pawsey, Mark

Penning, rh Mike

Penrose, John

Percy, Andrew

Perry, Claire

Philp, Chris

Pickles, rh Sir Eric

Pincher, Christopher

Poulter, Dr Daniel

Pow, Rebecca

Prentis, Victoria

Prisk, Mr Mark

Pritchard, Mark

Pursglove, Tom

Quin, Jeremy

Raab, Mr Dominic

Redwood, rh John

Rees-Mogg, Mr Jacob

Robertson, Mr Laurence

Robinson, Mary

Rosindell, Andrew

Rudd, rh Amber

Rutley, David

Sandbach, Antoinette

Scully, Paul

Selous, Andrew

Shapps, rh Grant

Sharma, Alok

Shelbrooke, Alec

Simpson, rh Mr Keith

Skidmore, Chris

Smith, Chloe

Smith, Henry

Smith, Julian

Smith, Royston

Soames, rh Sir Nicholas

Solloway, Amanda

Soubry, rh Anna

Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline

Spencer, Mark

Stephenson, Andrew

Stevenson, John

Stewart, Bob

Stewart, Iain

Stewart, Rory

Streeter, Mr Gary

Stride, Mel

Stuart, Graham

Sturdy, Julian

Sunak, Rishi

Swayne, rh Mr Desmond

Swire, rh Mr Hugo

Syms, Mr Robert

Thomas, Derek

Throup, Maggie

Timpson, Edward

Tolhurst, Kelly

Tomlinson, Justin

Tomlinson, Michael

Tracey, Craig

Tredinnick, David

Trevelyan, Mrs Anne-Marie

Truss, rh Elizabeth

Tugendhat, Tom

Turner, Mr Andrew

Tyrie, rh Mr Andrew

Vaizey, Mr Edward

Vara, Mr Shailesh

Vickers, Martin

Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa

Walker, Mr Charles

Walker, Mr Robin

Warman, Matt

Watkinson, Dame Angela

Whately, Helen

Wheeler, Heather

White, Chris

Whittaker, Craig

Whittingdale, rh Mr John

Wiggin, Bill

Williams, Craig

Williamson, rh Gavin

Wilson, Mr Rob

Wollaston, Dr Sarah

Wood, Mike

Wragg, William

Wright, rh Jeremy

Democratic Ulster Unionist

Campbell, Mr Gregory

Shannon, Jim

Ukip

Carswell, Douglass

Ulster Unionist Party

Elliott, Tom

Kinahan, Danny


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dailyrecord.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:23 PM GMT 


Oscar nominated Iranian film director unable to attend awards ceremony after Trump's Muslim ban;
Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film but may not be able to gain entry into the US for the ceremony.


BYLINE: By Record Reporter


SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT,CELEBRITY NEWS


LENGTH: 1279 words


An Oscar nominated director might not be allowed into the US to attend the ceremony after Donald Trump banned nationals from seven Muslin countries.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

However, President Trump announced that nationals from seven Muslim countries will no longer be issued visas to enter America.

Donald Trump snapped holding hands with Theresa May while walking outside White House

The renowned filmmaker has already won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation. 

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country.

ban

bans

President Trump has also ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

Trump also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to nationals from six other mainly-Muslim nations including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

However, his move has caused outrage among many people and organisations.

moore

syria

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Is this why Melania's face dropped at Donald Trump's inauguration? Viewers think they've spotted cause

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

tweet

tweet2

tweet3

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

All quiet at President Trump's Turnberry resort as he is sworn in as 45th US leader

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

'We might have to build our own wall' English rugby star Martin Offiah infuriates Scots

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Donald Trump trolled by former Mexican president who destroys his "f*****g wall" plans with one brilliant tweet

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."

Top news stories today


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 7:20 AM GMT 


Who leaked Trump and Turnbull's phone call? Claims President's own advisers may have leaked details of clash with Australian PM to prove he doesn't want refugee deal


BYLINE: OLLIE GILLMAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 779 words



Just a handful of close advisers were privy to President Donald Trump's heated first phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 

But despite just a few of Trump's inner circle hearing the tense conversation, details of the two leaders' supposedly blazing row have spread from Washington to Canberra - rocking the Turnbull administration.

The new President is said to have slammed Turnbull over a deal he agreed with Barack Obama which would have seen 1,250 refugees on Manus Island and Nauru shipped to the US.

A furious Trump is reported to have accused the Australian leader of trying to export the 'next Boston bombers' directly to the United States.

With no obvious whistleblower in the Oval Office during the telephone call on Sunday, some have suggested that one of Trump's own team may have leaked the conversation.

Sources in Canberra told the Sydney Morning Herald that Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon may have briefed the Washington Post on the story.

While this seems unlikely at first thought, the insiders believe leaking the story may show Trump is against the refugee deal - even if it has to go ahead.

Under fire White House press secretary Sean Spicer and national security adviser Michael Flynn were also in the room as Trump and Turnbull supposedly engaged in a war of words.

Some believe Trump may have been angered when Turnbull brought up the deal during their first call since his inauguration, which the new President may have expected to be a mere exchange of pleasantries.

This may explain why he reportedly told the Australian prime minister that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' that day.

Trump had earlier spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Trump was reportedly 'boasting' about his pleasant call with Putin when he told Turnbull the refugee agreement he struck with the Obama administration was the 'worst deal ever'.

Speaking about the 1,250 the US was supposed to be allowing into the country from Manus Island and Nauru, Trump is reported to have said: 'I don't want these people.'

He is also said to have complained that he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement.

Sky News sources claim President Trump was 'yelling' at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump abruptly hung up on Mr Turnbull after just 25 minutes - when the pair were meant to speak for an hour. 

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, President Trump ended the conversation. 

'During call with Australian PM on refugees, Trump pulled phone away from ear and says he wants off call, which ends abruptly per source,' CNN reporter Jim Acosta tweeted.

Trump later tweeted that the deal was 'dumb' and said he would be taking a second look at it.

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine.

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' the prime minister said.

Ross Cameron, a former minister for Turnbull's Liberal Party, said the leaked call could spell the end of his premiership, adding: 'He's finished.'


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 17, 2017 Wednesday 4:21 PM GMT 


Poland's Prime Minister says country will accept no refugees as EU threatens legal action over quotas;
Right-wing government holding ground after reversing commitment to resettle thousands of migrants


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:1


LENGTH: 605 words


Poland's Prime Minister has claimed the country "cannot accept refugees" as the EU threatens legal action against nations failing to comply with quotas.

Alongside Hungary and Austria, it is one of only three countries not to have relocated a single refugee, "in breach of their legal obligations" and commitments.

"This cannot be the responsibility of just a few member states - this must be shared be all," said Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for migration. 

Read more

London terror attack is about Britain's refugee policy, says Polish PM

But Prime Minister Beata Szydlo told a press conference there had been no formal agreement to compulsory quotas, which Hungary and Poland voted against.

"A critical attitude towards the mechanism of migrant relocation is becoming increasingly widespread in the European Union," she claimed, according to a translation by state broadcaster

Poland Radio

.

"Poland cannot accept refugees."

Austria has finally pledged to accept eligible asylum seekers from Italy, but the EU has warned Poland and Hungary that they have until June to start accepting refugees or face sanctions.

The ruling Law and Justice Party has taken a hard line on migration(

Agencja

Gazeta

/

Slawomir

Kaminski

/via Reuters)

"I call on Poland and Hungary who have not relocated a single person ... to start doing so right now," Mr Avramopoulos told reporters.

"If no action is taken by them before the next report in June, the Commission will not hesitate to make use of its powers under the treaties and to open infringement procedures."

Read more

EU plan to relocate 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece failing

In September 2015, EU states committed to relocating up to 160,000 refugees from overcrowded camps in Greece and Italy countries within two years - later lowering the target - but the total is on track to hit less than 40,000 by its deadline.

But fewer than 18,500 people have been resettled so far and while Poland has been assigned 6,200 refugees, none have been admitted.

The country committed to taking in up to 10,000 migrants at the start of the crisis but after winning the 2015 elections, the populist Law and Justice party (PiS) reversed the decision.

Mariusz Blaszczak, the interior minister, stuck by the position on Wednesday despite the EU's warnings.

Claiming that accepting migrants would have "certainly been worse for Poland" than facing EU action, he told state radio that the "security of Poland and of the Poles" was at stake and drew a link to terror attacks in Europe.

At a meeting on Tuesday, 28 Europeanministers told EU Commission Vice PresidentFrans Timmermans to increase efforts to bring Warsaw in line on what many see as weakening democratic standards in Poland.

"Dialogue is the only really constructive way we can solve this problem," he said, amid concern over steps taken by the PiS to reduce the Constitutional Tribunal's ability to check executive power.

Amnesty International accused the Polish government of "trampling over the EU's founding principles" and urged the EU to take action.

The disputes come amid record deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, where more than 1,300 people have drowned attempting to reach Europe this year.

While crossings to Greece have plummeted since the controversial EU-Turkey deal, the number of migrants arriving in Italy has continued to rise, seeing almost 13,000 people disembark last month alone.

Asylum seekers trapped in squalid camps have killed themselves amid increasing desperation, as charities warn of attempted suicide, rape, sexual abuse and prostitution.


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thetimes.co.uk


February 6, 2017 Monday 12:00 PM GMT 


Don't invite refugees to carnivals, Germans told


BYLINE: David Crossland, Berlin


SECTION: WORLD


LENGTH: 602 words


Police in northern Germany have been accused of racism after advising charities not to take refugees to traditional carnivals for security reasons.

In an internal email sent in January and made public in recent days, North Rhine-Westphalia's state police warned charity staff not to take refugees to carnivals, which has been common practice in recent years to help foreigners become familiar with German culture as they try to integrate in their new surroundings.

However, since the terror attack on a Berlin Christmas market in December when a Tunisian asylum seeker killed 12 shoppers by driving a lorry into them, police are concerned that a large number of foreign migrants at upcoming festivals will alarm ethnic Germans. 

"From a police point of view these actions are viewed critically because they promote the massed appearance of refugees and asylum-seekers at carnival events," the email said.

"We advise against this because in view of the current security situation in Germany and also due to events at the end of the last two years, this could unfortunately lead to undesired reactions in the population at present."

Police also included advice to refugees, warning them that they should be braced for extensive searches when they attend carnivals: "We as the police advise those affected to submit to controls without criticism."

The carnival season is fast approaching and the predominantly Catholic west and south of Germany come to a standstill for a six-day party of fancy dress balls and parades.

The parades culminate in the Rose Monday processions in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz that this year will fall on February 27.

The Cologne parade, which is the biggest, regularly attracts more than a million people. Security has been tightened since New Year's Eve 2015 when groups of men of north African or Middle Eastern appearance sexually assaulted and robbed women in the centre of the city, shocking Germany and deepening concern at the large numbers of asylum seekers allowed into the country by Angela Merkel.

The Cologne police, heavily criticised for failing to prevent the sexual assaults two years ago, has mounted major operations at big public events ever since. In December it detained almost 1,000 men of north African appearance, triggering accusations of racism.

The police email was leaked to refugee groups. A police spokesman confirmed its authenticity but added that it was a draft, that it was not intended for public circulation and had been criticised inside the department.

The Cologne Refugee Council, a group of migrant aid organisations, accused the police of provoking public hostility to refugees by submitting them to racial profiling.

It called on people to resist any police racism in the spirit of carnival, with has strong anti-authoritarian traditions dating back to the 19th century when it was an opportunity to poke fun at Prussians who ruled the rebellious Rhineland.

"The carnival offers the best opportunities to integrate refugees," the council said in a statement. "Many volunteer helpers organise refugee participation in events and processions. And that's a good thing! Dear huns and hussars, dear costumed revellers and backpack wearers: Watch out! If you see your neighbour being checked just because they look 'different,' intervene and ask why!" it said.

"No one has to suffer special treatment by the executive without criticism. Even if this is increasingly being forgotten: the fundamental rule of law still applies."

Sigrid Krebs, the spokeswoman of the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee, said: "We cordially welcome all people in the Cologne carnival."


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:33 AM GMT 


Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely;
Campaigners were left angry and distraught as details of the ban emerged without warning - causing chaos for many families


BYLINE: By Steve Robson


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 917 words


The brutal reality of Donald Trump's hardline stance on immigration came into force last night when he ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

The President also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to immigrants from seven mainly-Muslim nations including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days. 

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said earlier on Friday at the Pentagon.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's Mexico wall

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritizing Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritization, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme and halts visas being issued to citizens of several predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq.

It is expected to affect two programs U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.


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The Guardian


January 13, 2017 Friday 12:01 AM GMT 


UK failing Syrian refugees who survived torture, say MPs;
Few receive specialist help they need, report finds, while aim of resettling 20,000 vulnerable refugees by 2020 remains a challenge


BYLINE: Alan Travis Home affairs editor


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 542 words


Only a handful of the 1,000 survivors of torture or violence who have arrived in Britain under the government's Syrian vulnerable refugee resettlement programme have received specialist help, charities have told MPs.  

Related: Tortured Syrian refugees need specialist help | Letters

MPs on the Commons public accounts committee said it was "a stark fact" that more than half of the refugees resettled in Britain by the end of June last year had suffered torture or violence and it was critical that such people received specialist support.

Britain pledged to take 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees from camps in the Middle East by 2020 after David Cameron and Theresa May refused to take part in the European Union's plans to relocate thousands of Syrian refugees who had crossed the Mediterranean and reached Europe.

The MPs say in their report, published on Friday, that there are enough indicative pledges of support from local authorities around Britain to meet the 20,000 target but say it is essential these are turned into firm offers of resettlement places for the scheme to succeed.

The committee commended the Home Office, local authorities and others for their efforts on delivering the scheme: "After a concerted effort to resettle 1,000 before Christmas 2015, the programme sensibly took a step back in early 2016 to redesign a more sustainable programme. However, meeting the overall target to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in the UK by May 2020 remains a significant challenge."

The MPs have called on the Home Office and the local authorities involved to undertake a full review of how torture victims on the scheme are being identified and supported.

The committee concluded the review was necessary because "it is not clear that survivors of torture are receiving the specialist support and treatment they need".

Related: Scotland welcomes 1,000th Syrian refugee

They reached this conclusion after being told by Freedom from Torture, the only organisation dedicated to the treatment of torture survivors in Britain, that "just a handful of Syrians" had been referred to them for help and their offers to assist on a bigger scale had so far been overlooked.

Lucy Gregg of Freedom from Torture said: "We know that over half of those being resettled in the UK as part of this programme are survivors of torture or violence. Yet on arriving in this country, there are serious gaps in the process of identifying them and making sure they have access to the specialist services they desperately need to recover from their traumatic experiences."

The Home Office told the MPs that it was up to local authorities to make sure the relevant support and services were in place and that it could be difficult to identify whether refugees were survivors of torture before they arrived in Britain because of their concerns about revealing their experiences to a stranger.

Meg Hillier, Commons public accounts committee chair, said: "Syrians now make up the largest refugee population in the world and the UK is playing its part in helping people who are truly desperate. While the programme team was right to take a fresh look at the programme last year, more work is needed to make it sustainable in the longer term."


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The Guardian


January 13, 2017 Friday 12:01 AM GMT 


UK failing Syrian refugees who survived torture, say MPs;
Few receive specialist help they need, report finds, while aim of resettling 20,000 vulnerable refugees by 2020 remains a challenge


BYLINE: Alan Travis Home affairs editor


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 542 words


Only a handful of the 1,000 survivors of torture or violence who have arrived in Britain under the government's Syrian vulnerable refugee resettlement programme have received specialist help, charities have told MPs.  

Related: Tortured Syrian refugees need specialist help | Letters

MPs on the Commons public accounts committee said it was "a stark fact" that more than half of the refugees resettled in Britain by the end of June last year had suffered torture or violence and it was critical that such people received specialist support.

Britain pledged to take 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees from camps in the Middle East by 2020 after David Cameron and Theresa May refused to take part in the European Union's plans to relocate thousands of Syrian refugees who had crossed the Mediterranean and reached Europe.

The MPs say in their report, published on Friday, that there are enough indicative pledges of support from local authorities around Britain to meet the 20,000 target but say it is essential these are turned into firm offers of resettlement places for the scheme to succeed.

The committee commended the Home Office, local authorities and others for their efforts on delivering the scheme: "After a concerted effort to resettle 1,000 before Christmas 2015, the programme sensibly took a step back in early 2016 to redesign a more sustainable programme. However, meeting the overall target to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in the UK by May 2020 remains a significant challenge."

The MPs have called on the Home Office and the local authorities involved to undertake a full review of how torture victims on the scheme are being identified and supported.

The committee concluded the review was necessary because "it is not clear that survivors of torture are receiving the specialist support and treatment they need".

Related: Scotland welcomes 1,000th Syrian refugee

They reached this conclusion after being told by Freedom from Torture, the only organisation dedicated to the treatment of torture survivors in Britain, that "just a handful of Syrians" had been referred to them for help and their offers to assist on a bigger scale had so far been overlooked.

Lucy Gregg of Freedom from Torture said: "We know that over half of those being resettled in the UK as part of this programme are survivors of torture or violence. Yet on arriving in this country, there are serious gaps in the process of identifying them and making sure they have access to the specialist services they desperately need to recover from their traumatic experiences."

The Home Office told the MPs that it was up to local authorities to make sure the relevant support and services were in place and that it could be difficult to identify whether refugees were survivors of torture before they arrived in Britain because of their concerns about revealing their experiences to a stranger.

Meg Hillier, Commons public accounts committee chair, said: "Syrians now make up the largest refugee population in the world and the UK is playing its part in helping people who are truly desperate. While the programme team was right to take a fresh look at the programme last year, more work is needed to make it sustainable in the longer term."


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telegraph.co.uk


January 27, 2017 Friday 5:20 PM GMT 


Syrian refugees left reeling by Trump's expected ban on new arrivals


BYLINE: By Sara Elizabeth Williams


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 681 words


Syrian refugees are reeling as they wait to learn the impact of Donald Trump's promise to close America's borders to people fleeing from Syria.  

The new US president is expected to implement a blanket ban on all new refugees entering the US for the next four months as well as halting visa applications for people from Syria and five other countries for the next 30 days.

The flurry of new orders from the White House has upended the lives of Syrian refugee families in Jordan who only a week ago were preparing to make new lives for themselves in America.     

"Now I have to think again and make new plans. I have three kids and I need to find a good future for them," said Abu Mohammad, a 29-year-old father of three from Daraa, southern Syria.  

Mr Trump is expected to ban visa applications for Syrians and people from five other Muslim countriesCredit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

After four years in Jordan, Mr Mohammad expected to travel to Houston, Texas, in February. His mother and sister are already there. Now, he said, the only trip on his radar is to the Amman office of the UN's International Organisation for Migration, where he will wait for news.  

Mr Trump's actions ban on refugees came as Russia abruptly announced that the next round of Syrian peace talks were being postponed. 

Syria rebels and regime officials were due to gather in Geneva next week but Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said the talks were being pushed back until at least the end of February. 

He gave no explanation for the decision.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebel factions continue to fight against Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group. 

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham is fighting against other Syrian rebel groups

The violence in northern Syria is some of the worst infighting among opposition groups in recent years and has sent some smaller rebel groups into the arms of the hardline Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham in an effort to counterbalance the jihadists.  

Aid officials in Jordan privately admitted to being angry and "terrified" at the tone of Mr Trump's first week in office but are not commenting in public out of fear of alienating the new administration.  

For the UN, criticising US policy is a delicate proposition: the US is the single largest government donor to the UN's refugee agency, contributing $1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) in 2016.  

In Jordan, where the UN supports more than 650,000 Syrian refugees and runs two large camps in-country, plus a second camp on the Jordan-Syria border, any changes in refugee policy will be widely felt.

Under former President Barack Obama, the US reached its target of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees in August 2016 but refugees continued to be screened and admitted from Jordan.  

Next week, Jordan's King Abdullah II is scheduled to be in Washington, DC, where he is expected to meet with members of the new administration and possibly also Mr Trump. Like the UN, Jordan relies heavily on US funding, but the country also offers something in return: a longstanding Arab ally and a plenty of US military bases.  

Jordan relies heavily on US funding, but is one of America's leading Arab alliesCredit: EPA/JAMAL NASRALLAH

The complex relationship between Jordan and the US could be unsettled by another revelation from Washington this week. On Wednesday, Mr Trump said he "will absolutely do safe zones in Syria" for refugees fleeing violence in their country.  

In Jordan, where rumours have swirled for years of safe zones along the country's border with Syria, refugees and aid workers say this possibility has put them on edge.  

Authorities have long been clear that Jordan is overburdened by its Syrian population, and looks forward to the day it is safe for them to return home. The issue is whether a safe zone just inside the Syrian border would offer safety enough.  

A UN spokesperson said the organization was reaching out to the US administration to get more detail and clarity on the matter. But one official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter, told the Telegraph he was "extremely sceptical".  


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The Guardian


January 28, 2017 Saturday 6:56 PM GMT 


Is this a Muslim ban? Trump's executive order explained;
The immediate consequences have been dire for everyone including valid visa holders and legal residents, and lawsuits have already begun - but the orders' vagueness leaves much up in the air


BYLINE: Alan Yuhas


SECTION: US NEWS


LENGTH: 1617 words


What has the order done?


Related: US airports on frontline as Trump immigration ban causes chaos and controversy 



What are the immediate consequences?



How have Americans reacted?



Have any Republicans broken with Trump?

Related: Donald Trump's first week: carnage, both real and imagined | Tom McCarthy


While not technically a Muslim ban, this order is too broad. There are two ways to lose our generational battle against jihadism by losing touch with reality. The first is to keep pretending that jihadi terrorism has no connection to Islam or to certain countries. That's been a disaster. And here's the second way to fail: If we send a signal to the Middle East that the US sees all Muslims as jihadis, the terrorist recruiters win by telling kids that America is banning Muslims and that this is America versus one religion. Both approaches are wrong, and both will make us less safe. Our generational fight against jihadism requires wisdom."

What are the legal challenges to the ban?



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mirror.co.uk


February 9, 2017 Thursday 5:09 PM GMT 


Archbishop of Canterbury and Tory MPs join outrage at government 'shutting the door' on child refugees;
Justin Welby is "shocked and saddened" as ministers end a scheme to bring children to Britain - but Theresa May claims it's "absolutely right"


BYLINE: By Jason Beattie


SECTION: NEWS,POLITICS


LENGTH: 572 words


The Archbishop of Canterbury and Tory MPs have joined growing outrage at the Government's refusal to take more stranded child refugees.

The Rt Rev Justin Welby is "shocked and saddened" after ministersquietly revealed they'll shut a scheme to move children to Britain after accepting just 350.

The number is barely a tenth of the 3,000 demanded by 84-year-old peer Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. 

Despite furious criticism today the Prime Minister claimed Britain's approach was "absolutely right".

And Home Secretary Amber Rudd claimed continuing the scheme would "incentivise" people fleeing war to cross into Europe.

Tories quietly end scheme bringing stranded child refugees to Britain after taking just 350

She brushed off comparisons to the Kindertransport that saved Lord Dubs in the 1930s, saying: "It's not the same."

Syria's violent six-year civil war has left cities in ruins and produced 4.9million refugees, nearly a quarter of them under 18,according to the UN.

Lord Dubswon a victory last yearwhen he amended the Immigration Act, forcing Britain to accept unaccompanied child refugees who had already made the dangerous crossing to Europe.

Until then the government was only taking refugee children with family in Britain, or from camps near warzones - leaving many stranded in the Calais 'Jungle'.

But a bid to help 3,000 children under the so-called Dubs amendment was downgraded to a "specified number" after government pressure.

Yesterday ministers quietly revealed that "specified number" is just 350 - and 200 of those children have arrived in Britain already.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was "shocked and saddened", adding: "Refugees, like all people, are treasured human beings made in the image of God who deserve safety, freedom and the opportunity to flourish."

He called for councils to be given funds for more children to be housed, saying: "We must resist and turn back the worrying trends we are seeing around the world, towards seeing the movement of desperate people as more of a threat to identity and security than an opportunity to do our duty.

"We cannot withdraw from our long and proud history of helping the most vulnerable."

Tory MP Will Quince said he was "sad and disappointed" by the move.

His colleague David Burrowes MP accused the government of "shutting the door" on the Dubs scheme.

"This was not what Parliament intended. It looks like they have cut and run from child refugees.

"Our legal and moral obligation to child refugees has not been fulfilled," he said.

The Conservative MP Heidi Allen said it was "utterly unacceptable" the government was not prepared to talk to councils about continuing the scheme next year.

"There are an awful lot of us that are not going to let this go," she told the BBC.

In a joint press conference with Theresa May today, the Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned all European nations must pull their weight.

"Europe needs a common strategy for migrants and obviously the weight of the response we give to these influx of migrants need to be shared between the EU countries," he said.

"We need to push for a common sharing of responsibilities."

Yet Theresa May defended the decision, highlighting a separate scheme that will resettle 20,000 Syrians by 2020 - but only those who have not reached Europe.

She claimed: "I think what we're doing in terms of refugees is absolutely right."

Should Britain accept more unaccompanied child refugees?


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to 'ship the next Boston bombers' to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1108 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the allied leaders in just 25 minutes.

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.

Mr Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island when the pair spoke on Sunday morning Australia time, Saturday night Washington time. 

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement.

Sky News sources claim President Trump was yelling at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal.

The Post reported the president said 'I don't want these people'. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation.

A government source told CNN that Mr Trump pulled the phone away from his ear and indicated he wanted to end the call.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that Mr Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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Daily Star Online


February 20, 2017 Monday 6:09 PM GMT 


Canada in panic over 'criminal' refugees flooding across US border: 'It's about to blow'


BYLINE: Joshua Nevett


LENGTH: 597 words


TERRIFIED Canadians are living in fear of "confrontations" with "criminals" among hordes of illegal asylum seekers sneaking across the US border.

Worried residents living in the US-Canadian border province of Manitoba are "scared" the influx of undocumented refugees could be "about to blow".

At least 22 illegal asylum seekers are thought to have entered the region over the weekend, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. 

Swarms of refugees have flocked to Canada following the introduction of Donald Trump's controversial travel ban on seven majority Muslim nations.

Now residents living on the border say they are worried potentially "criminal" refugees who "bang the door" at night may have infiltrated their community.

GLOBAL NATIONAL/GETTY

CONCERNS: Canadians are worried about 'criminals' among asylum seekers

CNN

FEARS: Locals living on the border with the US are worried about security

One worried resident Greg Janzen, from Emerson, said the recent surge in asylum seekers has put strain on local resources and raised security fears.

Although the arrivals have been well behaved, Janzen said the situation is "starting to get concerning" because "the numbers are growing".

He worries "criminals" may be among the asylum seeker community.

He said: "I'm scared, the bigger the numbers - if we don't have enough officials, someone is going to slip through the crack because there's so many people to process."

He added: "It's about to blow. I think there's going to be confrontations.

"There's going to be an incident."

GLOBAL NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS: At least 22 refugees entered Canada over the weekend Related Articles Angela Merkel says Europe must take MORE refugees and Islam 'isn't source of terror' REVEALED: Angela Merkel red-faced as 3,000 refugees go MISSING in just one state Migrants cleared from Calais Jungle 'returning on 86p bus to get to UK' Greg Janzen, Emerson resident

Now Conservative politicans have called for a crackdown on illegal crossing to "protect our border".

In a statement, the federal Manitoba Conservatives said: "Canada is a safe and welcoming country, but we must also take steps to protect our border and ensure the process for entering our country is consistent and fair for all seeking refuge in Canada."

MP Ted Falk, chair of the Manitoba Conservative caucus, said: "We have a port of entry for a reason".

"Quite often [the asylum seekers] come in the middle of the night, they pound on the door, ring the doorbell, tap on the glass. Some [residents] are quite anxious about that situation.

"We don't know the people who are coming across. Are they all coming across because of a desire to seek a better life? Or are they coming across perhaps because they are criminals?"

Migrant crisis

It comes after a poll suggested one in four Canadians would be in favour of a Trump-style travel ban.

The Angus Reid Institute poll found a "significant segment" of Canadians say Canada's 2017 refugee target of 40,000 is too high.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the importance of welcoming refugees during a joint speech with Mr Trump.

Related articles Terror fears on the slopes: Jihadis could bomb Alps ski resorts, officials warn 'Open the borders!' Spain begs for MORE refugees from Syria Millions of refugees may cause ANOTHER migrant crisis 'if war-torn Afghanistan collapses'


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 11:39 PM GMT 


Sir Mo Farah faces being BANNED from returning to his family in America under Donald Trump's immigration crackdown on people from his Somali homeland 


BYLINE: REBECCA TAYLOR FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1357 words



Olympic hero Sir Mo Farah could be banned from returning to his home in America after Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The sprinter, who lives with his family in Oregon, is believed to be training in Ethiopia at the moment, and recently tweeted from there. 

President Trump's immigration crackdown prevents refugees coming into the USA from seven Muslim majority countries for 90 days and those from Syria indefinitely.

The ban also affects those with dual nationality, who were born in one of the seven countries, returning to the USA if they are currently away.  

In a statement that the State Department is due to release, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the 90-day visa moratorium extends beyond just citizens of Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen.

It also applies to people who originally hail from those countries but are traveling on a passport issued by any other nation, the statement notes. 

Sir Mo is originally from Somalia and moved to the UK when he was eight-years-old. 

Because he was born in one of the countries President Trump has targeted, travelling on a British passport will not help him return home. 

The statement means Iraqis seeking to enter the U.S. on a British passport, for instance, will be barred, according to a U.S. official. British citizens don't normally require a visa to enter the U.S.

'Travelers who have nationality or dual nationality of one of these countries will not be permitted for 90 days to enter the United States or be issued an immigrant or non-immigrant visa,' the statement said. 

'Those nationals or dual nationals holding valid immigrant or non-immigrant visas will not be permitted to enter the United States during this period. Visa interviews will generally not be scheduled for nationals of these countries during this period.'

Donald Trump defended his tough new immigration bans, and denied that his executive order, which bars refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US, was a Muslim ban. 

A Conservative MP also tweeted to say he is banned from the USA under President Trump's controversial ruling.

Nadhim Zahawi represents Stratford-on-Avon but both he and his wife were born in Iraq.

He tweeted: 'I'm a British citizen & so proud to have been welcomed to this country. Sad to hear ill [sic] be banned from the USA based on my country of birth.'

He added: 'Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat.

'A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen! Sad day for the USA.' 

The ban has also already affected an Iranian director nominated for an Oscar, who now won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his movie The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards, because he was born in Iran. 

An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans.

Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.

'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted.

Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Seven refugees bound for the U.S. were stopped from boarding a plane in Cairo on Saturday and 12 migrants were detained in New York overnight because they arrived just after the executive order was signed. 

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, one of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours at New York, was released on Saturday afternoon.

The 53-year-old had arrived in America on a flight from Istanbul on Friday night, just hours after Trump implemented the immigration ban.

He had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America.

The dual-citizenship ban doesn't apply to U.S. citizens who are also citizens of the seven nations singled out by Mr. Trump.

The State Department statement also said such restrictions don't apply to people from those countries traveling on diplomatic visas.

The official said that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. consulate in Erbil have stopped accepting visa applications from Iraqi nationals until further notice, except for certain diplomatic exceptions.

The urgent steps come as State Department officials try to sort out how to implement Mr. Trump's broadly-worded policy executive order. Officials said they received little information about the ban before it took effect from the Trump team. 

One described how a draft of the order was brought in unofficially to the State Department earlier this week to review before it took effect. 

At a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Theresa May repeatedly refused to criticise President Trump's executive order.

At a news conference in Ankara, Prime Minister May said: 'The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees.

'And our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria.'

On Saturday evening, a Downing St spokesman said Theresa May does 'not agree' with Donald Trump's refugee ban and will make representations if it hits Britons.

However just yards away from her, Prime Minister Yildirim was putting the boot in, saying building walls would not help the refugee crisis.

He said: 'We cannot solve this refugee problem by putting up walls.

'We opened our doors, and if they come again, we would take them again.

'Regional problems cannot be solved by sweeping them under the carpet.'

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: 'British citizens banned from the US and our government has nothing to say? Disgrace.' 

According to the Mirror, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: 'Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on.

'At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal.

'They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way.'

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.


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The Guardian


January 10, 2017 Tuesday 3:14 PM GMT 


Greece: severe weather places refugees at risk and government under fire;
Unprecedented freezing conditions leave camps covered in snow and EU commission aiming criticism at Greek authorities


BYLINE: Helena Smith


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 874 words


Thousands of refugees are enduring freezing temperatures in flimsy tents across Greece as a result of the the arctic blast that has swept across Europe, triggering criticism abroad and putting the government on the defensive.

In a robust exchange in parliament the migration policy minister, Yannis Mouzalas, conceded that people trapped in the country were living in appalling conditions exacerbated by severe cold weather and unprecedented snowfall nationwide.

"The situation in the hot spots is very bad," he said. "Conditions on the islands are awful." 

The government has faced severe criticism over conditions in reception centres that pose health and safety risks in the depths of winter.

Footage of tents weighed down by snow in the vastly overcrowded Moria camp in Lesbos has elicited particular consternation - and embarrassment for Mouzalas who only days ago insisted that in light of government preparations there would be no refugees living in the cold. Reports of illness among the elderly and infirm have been rife, with agencies attributing outbreaks of pneumonia and flu to the lack of adequate shelter.

On Monday the images drew a sharp rebuke from the European Commission. "The situation is untenable," said spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud. "But we also have to be clear ... that ensuring adequate reception conditions in Greece is a responsibility of Greek authorities."

Temperatures have plunged to -5C on Lesbos where authorities have struggled to cope with refugee numbers that surpassed capacity long ago. In other parts of Greece, including the southern island of Crete, the cold snap has seen temperatures drop to an unprecedented -14C. In the Attica region surrounding Athens - where efforts have been under way to place people in rented apartments - sub-zero temperatures were also recorded with snow blanketing ancient monuments.

The unusually cold readings are expected to continue through to Thursday.

On Tuesday, a flight carrying Mouzalas to Lesbos, where the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, is leading efforts to move people into hotels, was turned back because of the bad weather.

"Efforts are under way to move people as quickly as possible into hotels," the island's mayor, Spyros Galinos, told the Guardian. "I've not seen so much snow, ever. Electricity supplies have been knocked out. There are villages that are isolated, without light or heating or running water. It's difficult for everyone."

An estimated 62,000 migrants and refugees have been stranded in Greece following the closure of borders by countries further north and Europe's deal with Turkey to curb flows last March. About 10,000 of those are trapped on the Aegean islands, including Lesbos.

Although the number of arrivals has dropped dramatically since sea patrols were stepped up, more than 180,000 people have managed to reach Greece since March. Official figures released on Tuesday showed 5,491 refugees on Lesbos alone. Moria, the island's main facility, was built to house less than half that number. The government's migration spokesman, Giorgos Kyritsis, said fewer than 1,000 refugees were still living in tents on the islands.

"The burden has to be reduced," said Galinos. "Refugees have to be moved inland to other centres on the mainland."

In northern Greece, where the deep freeze worsened at the weekend, the plight of refugees living in tents in abandoned industrial warehouses was further complicated by water and electricity cuts.

NGOs attributed the chaos to the absence of a national response plan, saying despite warnings of bitterly cold weather the state had been woefully ill-prepared.

But international organisations also said the shocking images highlighted Europe's inhumane policies towards refugees and migrants.

"What we are seeing on the islands is the manifestation of the way Europe is failing to provide dignity for some of the world's most vulnerable," said Panos Navrozidis, country director of the International Rescue Committee in Greece. "It is imperative that people are moved off the Greek islands. The IRC warned of these life-threatening conditions months ago yet still now with this weather we face a life-or-death situation."

With resources stretched to breaking point in a nation itself dealing with economic and social crisis, the beleaguered government has appealed to other EU member states to expedite the process of taking in asylum seekers. Under an emergency relocation plan, agreed as part of the EU-Turkey deal, the 28-member bloc vowed to accept 63,302 refugees from Greece. To date only 7,280 have been relocated from the country, according to European commission data released this week.

Brawls between rival ethnic groups, attacks by far-right xenophobes, and frustration and uncertainty over what lies ahead have exacerbated tensions in camps.

In September, thousands were forced to flee Moria after members of Greece's neo-fascist Golden Dawn party set fire to the facility.

In what it described as "an extremely urgent appeal", the anti-racist group Keerfa said government-run installations in Athens, including a former military barracks at Malakasa, had to be closed immediately because hundreds of detainees, among them children, toddlers and disabled people were "literally freezing".


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The Herald (Glasgow)


February 10, 2017 Friday


May under fire over child refugees


BYLINE: Mike Settle


SECTION: Pg. 6


LENGTH: 515 words


THERESA May has come under intense pressure to reverse her decision to close a scheme to accommodate unaccompanied children in Europe after the daughter of "Britain's Schindler" made a personal appeal for her to "do the right thing". 

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Sir Nicolas Winton's daughter, Barbara, referred to US President Donald Trump's refugee ban, saying it echoed the "terrible failures of the human spirit that, on the eve of the Second World War, saw country after country close its borders to Jewish refugees in urgent need of protection".

Her late father helped 669 mostly Jewish children flee Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia just before the outbreak of war in 1939.

Noting how the fact that Britain had taken any child refugees fleeing the war in Syria had shown his spirit lived on, Ms Winton told Mrs May: "As my father's MP, I know he deeply valued the relationship he had with you towards the end of his life and at his memorial you very generously described him as 'an enduring example of the difference that good people can make even in the darkest of times' and said 'I hope that his life will serve as an inspiration for us all ... and encourage us to do the right thing'.

"As the world once again teeters on the edge of dark times, I ask you to remember those words," she added.

Ms Winton's call followed that of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and several MPs, who expressed outrage at the UK Government's move to close the so-called Dubs scheme, named after the Labour peer and former child refugee Lord Dubs. It seeks to help unaccompanied child refugees stranded in Europe.

The archbishop said he was "saddened and shocked" at Whitehall's decision to limit to 350 the number of children under the Dubs scheme and said he had believed ministers were "committed to welcoming up to 3,000 children under this scheme" and it was "regrettable" such a small proportion had been given sanctuary in Britain.

It piled further pressure on the the Government, which was yesterday criticised by MPs and peers after the cap on the scheme was announced quietly before the third reading of the Brexit bill.

The Prime Minister emphasised how the scheme was only one of a number of routes by which vulnerable children from war-torn Syria could find sanctuary in the UK.

"We have been seeing quite a number of children and families being resettled here in the United Kingdom," explained Mrs May.

"What we are doing in terms of refugees is absolutely right; on top, of course, of the significant financial support and humanitarian aid we are giving to refugees in the region of Syria - a commitment of £2.3 billion, the second biggest bilateral donor."

Downing Street said over the last year some 8,000 child refugees from across the world had been settled in the UK and that half of the 4,500 Syrian refugees accommodated here under the scheme to accept 20,000 by 2020 were children.

Lord Dubs' actions have been compared with those of Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 Jews by giving them a job in his factories in Nazi-occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia and southern Germany.


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telegraph.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:46 AM GMT 


Donald Trump bans citizens of seven muslim majority countries as visa-holding travellers are turned away from US borders


BYLINE: By Ruth Sherlock and Roland Oliphant


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 3142 words


Donald Trump was facing a fierce backlash at home and abroad on Saturday following his decision to ban families fleeing the violence in Syria from entering the United States and to temporarily suspend immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.

There was chaos and confusion at airports around America, as customs officials sought to implement the executive order that prevents entry to Syrians indefinitely, all other refugees for four months and bans travellers from seven Middle Eastern countries.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America," the president said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. "Don't want them here."

Even as several foreign governments condemned the decision, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, who has sought to develop close ties with Mr Trump, avoided criticising the president's actions.  

After being asked three times if she condemned the decision to ban families fleeing slaughter in war zones, Mrs May said: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees."

Lawyers and human rights groups took legal action, filing lawsuits which argued that the orders went against both the spirit of the US constitution and the letter of American law.

The order, which came into force as soon as Mr Trump signed it on Friday afternoon, requires US border officials to turn away any person arriving from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for the next 90 days, whether or not they have a green card.

With only a few exceptions for diplomats and dual citizens, the order takes no account of whether travellers have already been issued with visas.

In announcing his "extreme vetting" plan, Mr Trump invoked the  September 11, 2001 attacks. But most of the 19 plane hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon - all countries not included on the ban list.

Within hours of the order being signed, chaos broke out at airports around the world as officials sought to understand and interpret the new policies. 

Mohammed Al Rawi, a graduate of California State University and former journalist with the Los Angeles Times, said his father had been hauled off a flight in Qatar as a direct result of Mr Trump's decision.

"My 71-year-old dad is in Qatar boarding LAX flight to come visit us and he's being sent back to Iraq. Some US official told him that Trump cancelled all visas," he wrote on Facebook hours after the order was signed.

Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an Egypt Air flight from Cairo to New York on Saturday.

Some airlines have warned that all passengers whose journeys began in any of the seven countries may be affected, even if their own citizenship is not on the "banned" list.

An Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend the ceremony in the wake of the orders, it was reported.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for The Salesman, which tells of a couple whose relationship is thrown into disarray after an intruder surprises her in the shower.  Mr Farhadi also won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation.

Hamaseh Tayari, a UK resident who holds an Iranian passport, who had been on holiday  in Costa Rica, found she was unable to board her plane back to Glasgow because her flight went via New York. She found her transit visa had been revoked.

Ms Tayari, who grew up in Italy and works as a vet in the UK told the Guardian she had   never experienced anything like this.

"I want people to know that this is not just happening to refugees," she said. "I am a graduate and I have a PhD. It has happened to a person who is working and who pays tax."

Matt Zellar, an army captain who runs No One Left Behind, a charity that seeks to bring to the US Afghanis and Iraqis who worked with the American military in their countries, said the bans had caused their programmes to be suspended.

Mr Zellar works with people who have been placed on death lists by the Taliban, Isil, or other extremist organisations for the time they spent working with the US military.

He told The Sunday Telegraph that the process of getting these men and their families into America had always been laborious, sometimes taking them up to five years to obtain a visa. But the executive order was forcing him mostly to suspend the programme.

 "Some have been waiting years, moving night by night and living away from their families to escape death squads," Mr Zellar said. "This closes out their last hope. Heroes and patriots who saved American lives are going to die for their service to us."

The executive order includes a potential loophole that says the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may, on a "case-by-case basis, and when in the national interest, issue visas or other immigration benefits to nationals of countries for which visas and benefits are otherwise blocked".

But Mr Zellar said repeated efforts to reach the White House to get permission to apply this to former US military employees had failed.The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Watch | Donald Trump's first weekly address 02:21

The order also sparked concern in the business world. Google recalled all travelling staff members to the US following the order, and warned of the possible impact on recruiting top talent abroad.

"We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere," a Google spokesman said.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, wrote in a post yesterday that he would be working with Fwd US, a charity he supports, to develop protection for child immigrants brought to the US at a young age by their parents.

Iran said it would stop US citizens entering the country in retaliation to Washington's visa ban, calling it an "open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation". 

<table>

Awkward https://t.co/T3kAx2ACXa

- Rupert Myers (@RupertMyers) January 28, 2017Foreign governments (but no the UK) condemn refugee ban

"Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty," said  Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister said, speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with  Sigmar Gabriel, his German counterpart.

"The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people," said Mr Gabriel.

Germany has taken in more than one million refugees and migrants, mainly from the Middle East, since 2015.

 Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister said Trump's order would have negative consequences.

"The American president is dividing the Muslim world into good and evil with this," Mr Asselborn told the Tagesspiegel German newspaper. "The decision is also bad for Europe because it will increase the Muslim world's mistrust and hatred of the West."

Backlash from Democratic politicians and rights groups in the US

Many Democrat party members decried the ban as anti-American.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader said tears were "running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty" as a "grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon".

Prominent rights groups decried the move and several filed motions to oppose it including the American Civil Liberties Union, and the International Refugee Assistance Project.

The United Nations' refugee agency - UNHCR - and International Organization for Migration also called on the Trump  administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.

Inconsistencies in the Trump administration's claims







Banned from the Academy Awards

They included an Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category who will be unable to attend this year's ceremony in the wake of President  Trump 's ban.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated  for  The Salesman , which tells of a couple whose relationship is thrown into disarray after an intruder surprises her in the shower. 

Meanwhile, Mohammed Al Rawi, a graduate of California State University and former journalist with the Los Angeles Times, said his father had been hauled off a flight in Qatar as a direct result of Mr Trump's decision. 

He wrote on Facebook hours after the order was signed: 

Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York on Saturday. 

The passengers, arriving in transit to Cairo airport, were stopped and re-directed to flights headed for their home countries despite holding valid visas, Reuters reported. 

Some airlines have warned that all passengers whose journeys began in any of the seven countries may be affected, even if their own citizenship is not on the "banned" list.  

Vera Mironova, a Russian citizen returning from an academic research trip to Iraq, said she had been warned at check in that she may not be allowed into the US despite holding a green card. 

"I just talked to Lufthansa guys and since an hour ago they need to inform all people traveling from Iraq about this possibility," she said before boarding on Saturday afternoon. 

<table>

News: Air Canada says anyone with passport from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen CANNOT take flight to US, green card or not.

- Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 28, 2017Lawyers mount legal challenge to refugee ban

Donald Trump's decision to close America's borders to refugees was causing confusion and chaos at airports across the US, as people fleeing war zones were turned away by customs officials.

But the ban is now being met with several high profile challenges from lawyers at civil rights organisations who say that the demands made in the executive order may be illegal . 

The Immigration and Nationality Act, implemented by congress in 1965 banned all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin.  President Lyndon B Johnson said as he signed the law that "the harsh injustice" of the national-origins quota system had been "abolished."

The law states that  no person could be "discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person's race, sex, nationality, place of birth or place of residence." 

The detentions at airports around the US have prompted legal challenges. The New York Times reported that lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees held at Kennedy Airport filed a writ of habeas corpus early Saturday in the Eastern District of New York seeking to have their clients released. At the same time, they filed a motion for class certification, in an effort to represent all refugees and immigrants who they said were being unlawfully detained at ports of entry.

One of the Iraqis, Khalid Darweesh, worked for the US government in Iraq for a decade. Whilst the other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was coming to the United States to join his wife and young son, the lawyers said. 

<table>

This was my team. We fought together in Iraq. Guess the two most critical members. Now guess which two are no longer welcome in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/VD5Hy8arvA

- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 28, 2017

The attorneys said they were barred from meeting with their clients. When they asked who they needed to talk to to remedy this, a Customs and Border Protection official told them to "call Mr Trump".

One of the lawyers is from the Refugee Assistance Project. The group said in a statement that the executive order is "irresponsible and dangerous". 

The organisation said: "Denying thousands of the most persecuted refugees the chance to reach safety is an irresponsible and dangerous move that undermines American values and imperils our foreign relations and national security.

"IRAP works with hundreds of the most vulnerable refugees - children with medical emergencies, survivors of gender-based violence and torture, and Afghan and Iraqi allies to U.S. forces, to name a few - who will be left in immediate life-threatening danger. 

"For many of them, resettlement in the United States is their only option to live safely and with dignity."

Refugee Moustafa Abdulrahman, 2, from Kobani, Syria, peeks out while standing outside his family's shelter at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.Credit: Muhammed Muheisen/The Associated Press Google recalls staff after Trump immigration ban

The order also sparked concern in the business world. 

Google recalled all travelling staff members to the United States following the order amid concern about the possible impact on recruiting top talent abroad. 

A Google spokesperson said: "We're concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US.  We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere."

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, wrote in a post on Saturday that he was "concerned" about the impact of the orders and that he would be working with Fwd.US, a charity he supports, to develop protections for child immigrants brought to the US at a young age by their parents. 

The order signed by Mr Trump also imposes a 120-day suspension the US refugee resettlement programme, regardless of applicants' country of origin, while administration officials develop additional vetting procedures and decide which countries those procedures are "adequate" to ensure safety.

Syrian refugees are singled out as "detrimental to the interests of the United States" and banned from entering the country indefinitely.   

Donald Trump speaks alongside defence secretary James Mattis, right, and vice president Mike Pence,  leftCredit:  UPI / Barcroft Images/ UPI / Barcroft Images

The U.S. may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country."

The order suspended a resettlement programme that allowed 85,000 people fleeing war, hunger, and political or religious persecution, to be resettled in the US last year.  

Paul Ryan, the republican speaker of the House, said it was "time to re-evaluate and strengthen the visa-vetting process."

At a glance | Donald Trump's immigration ban

Many Democrats decried the move as "un-American."

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," said Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader.

Theresa May refuses to condemn US refugee ban

Theresa May refused to condemn Mr Trump's decision when she appeared at a joint press conference with Binali Yildirim, the prime minister of Turkey, following a meeting in Ankara. 

Asked by Faisal Islam, the political editor of Sky News, whether she viewed it as an "action of the leader of the free world," the Prime Minister replied that she had been "very pleased" to have met Mr Trump in Washington. 

She proceeded to praise Britain's record on refugees, but avoided commenting on US policy. 

"The United States is responsible for the United States policy on refugees," she said when pressed on the issue a second time. 

Mr Yildirim, commenting on the same issue, said UN members "cannot turn a blind eye to this issue and settle it by constructing walls".

France, Germany and Luxembourg also voiced disquiet at the decision.  

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French Foreign Minister said many of Trump's decisions worried the two U.S. allies, including new immigration restrictions.

"This can only worry us, but there are many subjects that worry us," Mr Ayrault said at a joint news conference in Paris with Sigmar Gabriel, his German counterpart.

"Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty," he added.

Mr Gabriel said: "The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people." 

The United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on Donald Trump's administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the U.S. resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the two Geneva-based agencies said in a joint statement.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race," they said.

The agencies hoped "that the US will continue its strong leadership role and long tradition of protecting those who are fleeing conflict and persecution".

Some 25,000 refugees were resettled in the United States between October and year-end under UNHCR's programme for the most vulnerable, the agency said on Friday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it would file a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the executive order on Monday.

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena Masri, the group's director of National Litigation. 

Donald Trump on Muslim countries 


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 27, 2017 Thursday 12:13 PM GMT 


UK could have taken 1,300 more child refugees not just 130, says fostering charity;
Home Office accused oftelling 'continuous lies' about number ofunaccompaniedrefugee children UK has capacity to take infrom Europe under Dubs Amendment


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: HOME NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 932 words


The UK has capacity to take in at least 1,300 more child refugees, 10 times more than the 130 the Home Office has specified, Britain's largest fostering and adoption charity has said.

Tact Care, which provides foster care for between 30 and 70 refugee children each year as well as hundreds of domestic children, told

The Independent 

the Home Office wasadopting a "dog whistle policy" in the transfer of child refugees from Europe, saying it did notconsult local authorities properly to establish how many children could be brought to the UK under the Dubs Amendment.

Following an announcement by the Immigration Minister on Wednesday in which he said 130 places offered by local councils for unaccompanied minors as part of the Dubs scheme

were not originally accounted for due to an "administrative error", the charity accused the Home Office of "telling continuous lies" about the true capacity.

Read more

Child refugees in northern France 'facing exploitation on daily basis'

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

UK refused entry to 130 child refugees due to administrative mistake

Tact Care said on its Twitter page: "Great work from Citizens UK but the Home Office lied about capacity. There is room for at least 1300 more not 130.

"In 2016 the Association of Directors of Children's Services and the Home Office agreed a national transfer scheme. Most local authorities nowhere near agreed capacity limit and Home Office know this."

Andy Elvin, chief executive of the charity, told

The Independent

the Home Office was telling "continuous lies" about the UK's capacity to take in child refugees, and accused the Government of failing to consult local authorities before calling an end to the Dubs scheme, saying there were probably "a lot more" councils who would be willing to provide places.

"The Home Office is spouting continuous lies. There is room for at least 1,300 children in the UK, but due to a chaotic system many places are going unaccounted for," said Mr Elvin.

"They didn't have an organised process of asking local authorities how many places they could offer Dubs children. I've spoken to a number of children's services and those who lead on these issues in local government, and they all said no one asked them.

"The announcement yesterday was a result of Citizens UK getting some of their local groups together and lobbying councils. A few more councils quickly signed up for the national transfer scheme, and the Home Office probably received the offers and they knew they couldn't not say it.

"But there are probably a lot more that would. When you work out how many children the UK could take based on the 0.07 per cent of child population that local authorities are asked to take in for the national transfer scheme, you see that there is a lot of capacity."

Read more

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

The Home Office came under fire earlier this year when it announced that the scheme, which was initially intended to bring in 3,000 unaccompanied minors from Europe, was to be capped at 350, with

charities warning

that the Government's policy on child refugees appeared to be based on "guesswork" rather than actual evidence.

Since the Dubs scheme was ended in February, scores of vulnerable, potentially eligible children have continued to live rough in and around Calais, routinely risking their lives by continuing to make dangerous attempts to cross the Channel illegally to reach the UK.

Mr Elvin added that there was additional capacity for child refugees that wasn't being considered at all, because charities such as his were not contracted by the Home Office to take part in the scheme, despite them volunteering to do so.

"There are independent fostering agencies with places that aren't included in local authority capacity. Throughout the process the Home Office has not come to us to ask how much capacity we have. We've volunteered it. We've said they can contract directly with us. We've got plenty of capacity around the country to offer placements but they don't even ask us," he said.

"All of it is based on dog whistle policy. They're not wishing at all to be humane towards refugees or asylum seekers. In the Home Office there's this myth that if they create a hostile environment for refugees then less will come.

"They fail to appreciate the push factors. People are sending their children because the alternative is their children dying. It's not a marginal life style choice that's being made here. People will continue to come because various bits of the world are on fire.

"They can get away with it because when people talk about immigration, especially now that we have an election, no one is talking about the rights of refugees. They know they're going to get votes out of saying we will be tough on them."

Charities and campaigners welcomed the Immigration Minister's announcement on Wednesday that the number is higher than previously thought, but voiced concern that such errors could be being made on a wider scale and subsequently called on the Government to re-consult with councils on capacity and consider re-opening the Dubs scheme.

Rabbi Janet Darley, spokesperson for Citizens UK's Safe Passage project, said: "Yesterday's admission by the government that 130 extra places have been found for vulnerable children due to an 'administration error' only highlights the need for the government to re-consult with local authorities.

"They have a legal and a moral obligation to establish the true number of places available for vulnerable refugee children."


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:29 PM GMT 


Oscar-nominated Iranian director is blocked from attending awards ceremony, seven U.S.-bound migrants are stopped in Cairo and two refugees are held in JFK as Trump's immigration ban kicks in


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1464 words



An Iranian director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony after Donald Trump signed off on his tough new immigration bans.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his film The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards. 

His native Iran, which is where The Salesman was filmed, is one of seven countries listed in Trump's executive order that has placed a 90-day pause on visas and immigration to the U.S. 

Scroll down for video 

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted on Saturday morning that Farhadi would be banned.

'Iran's Asghar Farhadi won't be let into the US to attend Oscar's. He's nominated for best foreign language film... #MuslimBan,' he wrote.

It comes as visa, green card holders and refugees were blocked from entering the United States just hours after Trump signed the order on Friday afternoon.   

Seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were stopped from boarding a flight from Cairo on Saturday, while at least two Iraqis were detained after flying in to New York's JFK airport on Friday night.

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

In addition to Iran, the other countries on Trump's blacklist are Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans. 

Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.

'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted. 

Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation.

The visa ban has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.

Two Iraqi refugees, including one who had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years, were detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday, The New York Times  reports.

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them.

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who had worked as a interpreter with the U.S. Army in Iraq, was travelling with his wife and three children at the time. 

The other man, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son in Texas. 

Lawyers representing the two Iraqi men were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning. 

Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees.  

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being boarding and admission into the United States at the airport.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

TRUMP'S LIST FOR 'EXTREME VETTING' MEASURES: 

Trump's executive order provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm'.

They include:


After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have excluded from the order.

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey, the NY Daily News reports. 

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'


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Express Online


March 14, 2017 Tuesday 12:00 AM GMT 


Syrian refugees moved into six-bedroom home after no family found 'could be first of many'


BYLINE: Giles Sheldrick


LENGTH: 829 words


A DECISION to put Syrian refugees into a six-bedroom house in the countryside caused further anger last night as residents were told there may be more refugees on the way.

GOOGLE MAPS

The residents near Sevenoaks, Kent, claimed the decision was made without consultation

Inhabitants of the quiet village are furious a migrant family will jump to the front of the queue. 

The sprawling £600,000 property in Kent has been empty for a year but will be refurbished and handed over within months.

Those living in the chocolate box village of Eynsford near Sevenoaks claimed the decision was made without consultation and would split the community.

In spite of the feelings of local residents, the council said the refugee family could be the first of many to arrive in the area.

Related articles Syrian families given cash cards of benefits made up of YOUR money Kal Penn helps raise $560,000 for Syrian refugees after 'racist' hate

One resident, who did not want to give his name, said: "I would say everybody in the village is against it - I just can't understand how this has gone ahead.

"This was all under the radar and a done deal before anyone knew. None of us have been asked about it yet there seems to have been 'overwhelming' support for it.

"It's a nice big house in a prime location, it could be luxury. There must be hundreds of families crying out for a place like this."

Eynsford, less than 40 minutes' commute from central London, is home to a Roman villa, two sixteenth century pubs and is a past winner of Kent Village of the Year.

GOOGLE MAPS

Eynsford is less than 40 minutes' commute from central London

The extended semi-detached property at end of a quiet cul-de-sac boasts a large front room, spacious kitchen, two bathrooms and a generous sized garden.

Who might move in was the talk of the tea rooms today but villagers were adamant needy local families should have been given priority.

Jessica Meeson said: "I always thought charity started at home - clearly not any more. I am not convinced there is not a family in the whole of Kent that could not have used it."

A pensioner living close to the vacant house said: "No one asked me whether I wanted them here. I don't believe what the council is saying about not being able to find a local family in the area.

"I feel sure there must be lots of British families that would benefit from a house like that. It's like putting a ticking time bomb here. This family will stick out like a sore thumb."

The home has been adapted for people with disabilities but its owner, housing association West Kent, found there was no local need for the property.

It has previously been used as emergency accommodation but Sevenoaks District Council claimed it has not been able to find a suitable permanent family.

There are 758 people on the housing waiting list, but none who needs a six bedroom home, one who requires five bedrooms and 17 people who need four bedrooms.

GETTY

The council said the refugee family could be the first of many to arrive in the area

Councillor Michelle Lowe said: "We have agreed to bring our first Syrian refugee family to the district and I firmly believe this is a good outcome for everyone.

"The community sponsorship scheme offers further opportunities to help resettle vulnerable Syrian families in the district.

"We are keen to speak with landlords and community groups to explore the option of providing further houses for Syrian refugee families."

The local authority claimed hundreds of people lobbied them to use the property to house refugees rather than split or sell it.

Humphrey Pring, of the Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugees campaign group, helped collect signatures from those calling for a Syrian family to be placed in the property.

He said: "We just believe it is the right thing to do - these people have been through, and are still going through, an atrocious experience given the war in Syria.

"And we feel, as a sign of a decent society, we should be able to accommodate a small number of people in Sevenoaks."

The family will be identified and vetted by Kent County Council and Home Office as part of the Government's Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.

GETTY

Last year the Government promised to accelerate a resettlement programme

Last year the Government promised to accelerate a resettlement programme so those fleeing war-torn countries could start a new life in Britain.

Churches, charities and businesses were asked to provide housing and support to families from the Middle East and North Africa with refugees given assistance integrating into society, accessing medical services and learning English.

Lambeth Palace, the historic London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first sponsor approved under the scheme and is now home to a Syrian refugee family.

Related articles Some of Syrian refugees in the West are 'DEFINITELY' terrorists 'Not against the Syrian people' Assad backs Trump over travel ban BBC documentary shows how one boy is helping Syrian refugees to set...


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PR Newswire Europe


April 4, 2017 Tuesday 9:42 AM EST 


EDOF Announces Partnership with FreezMate to Provide Heated and Cooling Mattresses to Syrian Refugees


LENGTH: 512 words


DATELINE: GENEVA, April 4, 2017


The Essam and Dalal Obaid Foundation(EDOF) has announced that it is forming a partnership with FreezMate, a company that produces heated and cooling mattresses, in order to provide the mattresses to refugees from the Syrian civil war. The Syrian crisis has left over 3 million refugees in neighboring countries and over 6 million displaced people inside Syria itself. The partnership will make it possible for Freezmate to send its heated and cooling mattresses to the refugees so they can weather the hardships of winter. 

     (Logo:http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/470758/EDOF_2017_Logo.jpg)

"The Syrian conflict has produced one of the greatest humanitarian problems of our age," says EDOF CEO, Dr. Nawaf Obaid. "We believe something must be done. This partnership with Freezmate will mean we can be instrumental in helping refugees survive what is likely to be very difficult winter and summer seasons."

FreezMate was founded by businessman, Tarek Al Emam. While its goal is to be able to provide the mattresses to refugees around the world, the organization is currently focused on the urgency of what is happening in Syria. As Mr. Al Emam says, "Refugees face such a daunting number of difficulties, from finding food and adequate housing to receiving medical care and avoiding further conflict. We feel that sending heated/cooling mattresses is not only one way to offer direct help, but we also hope to use the news about the shipment of the mattresses to highlight the fact that more help is needed."

The Freezmate mattresses are designed to be heated in microwaves, but as Mr. Al Emam points out, "There are no microwaves in the refugee camps. Therefore, the mattresses will come with instructions on how to heat them in boiling water. Once that is done, they will provide warmth for several hours, and moreover it is made of soft material that can be used as a comfortable sleeping mattress." Freezmate is also developing solar ovens that will make heating the mattresses even easier.

"We are very excited to be partnering with Freezmate," says EDOF's founder, Tarek Obaid. "EDOF has been eager to help with the situation in Syria. Providing these heated/cooling mattresses is a very tangible solution to a very real problem. Millions of people face a difficult winter, and being able to play a role in their attempts for essential warmth is the perfect extension of EDOF's mission of helping organizations that help people in crisis."

Mr. Al Emam is confident that the mattresses will be highly useful to the refugees. "Our manufacturing development process involves lots of trial and error. In fact, we have undertaken at least 20 usage experiments to make sure the materials for the mattresses are just right. Thus, I am certain these heated/cooling mattresses will provide a great deal of assistance in helping the refugees in their struggle to secure a basic human need-warmth in winter."

More information about EDOF:http://www.edof.org

More information about Freezmate:http://www.freezmate.com

Contact
Christelle Marquette
+41-22-818-61-20
christelle.marquette@edof.org


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 4:17 PM GMT 


Don't let Amber Rudd pass the blame over letting lone child refugees into the UK;
Opinion seems to exist on a continuum which says refugees in Jordan or Lebanon need our help, but once they get close enough to our borders theysuddenlybecome a potential threat


BYLINE: Liam Booth-Smith


SECTION: VOICES


LENGTH: 620 words


Compassion, sermonised Amber Rudd at last year's Conservative party conference, "does not have borders". It would seem, however, it does have a cap.

Today's urgent questions on the Government's decision to close the provision offered by the Dubs amendment to settle unaccompanied child refugees failed to provide any reasonable case, practical or ethical, for back tracking on last summer's commitment to settle thousands.

Amber Rudd is wrong on the Dubs amendment for two important reasons. The first is that her interpretation of Dubs as a "pull factor" or "incentive" to travel across Europe isn't born out in the statistics. We have only settled 200 children so far, less than 10 per cent of the originally stated goal of 3,000. The newly imposed cap of 350, just over half of the 544 unaccompanied children residing in Calais, will not dissuade the people traffickers or those desperate enough to pay for their "services". 

Refugees and migrants were streaming across Europe long before David Cameron adopted the amendment and will continue on after it has been dropped. Invoking the image of some sort of modern day children's crusade rolling across French hills and through shady German woodland all because we've committed to helping child refugees is a bit of a stretch. With MPs reportingthat 50 unaccompanied child refugees a day are going back to the camps in northern France, we're passed the point of stopping them getting on the boats in the first place.

Secondly, the insinuation that councils weren't "stepping up" is an invitation to see an act of self-defence as sadism. Local authorities simply don't have enough money to meet their current obligations, let alone pump up demand for their services. As the LGA's David Simmonds said on BBC Radio 5 Live, "If the money isn't available to pay foster carers, then councils won't be able to get them to take on refugee children."

Underneath all of this is a contradiction which we have yet to figure out. Opinion seems to exist on a continuum which says refugees in Jordan or Lebanon need our help, but once they get close enough to our borders suddenly they become a potential threat. Can we really, as Daniel Trilling

wrote in the

Times Literary Supplement

last June, expect a border policy which puts our obligations to displaced people into conflict with our desire for security to work? Politically the answer appears to be no.

The Home Secretary suggested we need to "spread responsibility around" for child refugees. She rightly praised Kent for bearing the brunt, yet I fail to see how she can assume the moral high ground over councils who choose not to enter a

voluntary

scheme when she voluntarily caps the numbers we accept.

Child refugees in France 'neglected' by authorities following Home Office rejections

I mentioned the children's crusades of 1212 earlier. Tens of thousands of children and peasants followed Stephan of Cloyes and Nicholas of Cologne towards the Middle East. None were recorded to have reached the Holy land. They barely left their own countries, let alone the continent. This is surely the point. Most will not reach our shores. More than 80 per centare hosted by developing countries close to their own.

Last year we established an obligation to those children who did make it that we would protect them. "Are such things done on Albion's shore" wrote William Blake in his

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

on Britain's predilection for excessive commercial and penal treatment of children. We no longer indulge such brutality ourselves; however in reneging on our Dubs commitment we are indirectly abetting a cruelty not out of place in the 18

th

or 19

th

century. Not on Albion's shores anymore I grant you, but just off them.


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just-style global news


April 9, 2017 Sunday 12:16 PM GMT 


New Jordan garment sector alliance to help refugees


BYLINE: Leonie Barrie


LENGTH: 926 words


A new garment sector alliance in Jordan aims to create opportunities for refugees caught up in the Syrian crisis and help their host countries &ndash; but participants acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead.

The Jordan Garment Sector Alliance (JGSA) was first set in motion at the Supporting Syria and the Region conference in London in December, and aims to improve the competitiveness of the garment and clothing sector in Jordan in a bid to increase exports and create an expected 200,000 new jobs over the coming years.

Backed by the World Bank Group, the Alliance brings together the International Labour Organization, Better Work Jordan, the Jordan Investment Commission, the Jordan Industrial Estates Company, the Jordan Garments, Accessories, and Textiles Exporters' Association (JGATE) and the Jordan Chamber of Industry and Trade &ndash; who are all now working to design programmes that translate the policies contained in the Jordan Compact (the conference's final document) into practice. 

Jordan is currently hosting more than 650,000 Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations' refugee agency, 80% of whom live in host communities. But the total number could be higher since the country's recent census showed some 1.3m Syrians living in the country.

The garment industry is seen as one of the sectors that can absorb both refugees and the local workforce since work is labour-intensive and more than half of its 70,000 workers already come from abroad, mostly hailing from South and South-East Asia.

Jordan's US$1.6bn apparel industry accounts for some 20% of the country's exports, said JGATE chairman Husam Saleh at a recent alliance meeting in Amman, stressing that the industry had registered a 6% increase in apparel exports year-on-year.

Opportunities are also expected to arise from new relaxed rules of origin that allow Jordan to export products to Europe tariff free for ten years until 31 December 2026 if they employ Syrian refugees.

The EU-Jordan Association Agreement Amendment last July means Jordan's clothing exporters benefit from free EU market access under the EU's generalised scheme of preferences (GSP). It covers 52 product groups including all types of textiles, clothing, fabric and yarns, and applies to goods manufactured with 70% non-local materials in 18 zones. To qualify, the workforce to be of at least 15% Syrian refugees &ndash; rising to 25% from 2019.

EU relaxes origin rules on Jordan clothing exports

Other opportunities are expected to come from the removal of Jordan from the US 'List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor', also known as the TVPRA list, in October.

Still, challenges have emerged when trying to attract Syrians to the sector. Manufacturers have said the duty waiver does not give Jordan a major trade advantage due to the country's higher production costs; while Syrians have cited the low salary of JOD190 (US$268) a month, fear of losing financial aid from international donors, and work permit issues.

Jordan exporters unhappy at EU refugee-linked deal

And this has led to calls for the Jordan Garment Sector Alliance to ensure consolidation of the garment sector through advocacy, growth of local employment and an increase in compliance, and also now play a crucial role helping bring a new refugee workforce to the industry.

"The idea is to try to create a programme where all different partners get together to create opportunities for both Jordanians and refugees," said Benjamin Herzberg, program lead at the equitable growth, finance and institutions vice-presidency of the World Bank Group, at a meeting following discussions among the members of the alliance in Jordan and the UK.

"We need to work not only on matching the Jordanian suppliers with global purchasers, and on coordinating market actors, but also on labour market connectivity, to make sure both the Jordanians and the Syrian refugees understand what it is like to work in a garment factory, in order to attract them to join it."

The official also suggested repeating the successful model of 'satellite factories' for Jordanians &ndash; branches of large companies scattered across the country's rural areas &ndash; for Syrians, establishing them next to refugee camps, for example."We and Better Work are looking at factory floor compliance and see lots of progress," Herzberg said. "Now, both workers and global brands know that when they come here in Jordan, they will find relatively good conditions, people are treated well, and there is a collective bargaining agreement in place."

Jordan's Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Yaroub Al Quodah, agreed the Jordan Garment Sector Alliance could make a difference.

"A fundamental factor for this sector is its ability to hire a large number of workers," Al Quodah said at the meeting while calling on all the elements of the alliance to increase their integration to attract more foreign investment. "Investment would help the Jordanian work be recognised in the world economy and open different channels," he said.

Tareq Abu Qaoud, Better Work Jordan programme manager, said his joint UN-World Bank Group programme would contribute to the success of the integration of Syrian refugees within the local workforce and create more jobs for Jordanians by providing support to increase the sector's compliance and lend its technical expertise to the third renewal of the country's collective bargaining agreement. 

Last month the World Bank helped the Jordan Garment Sector Alliance organise the first UK-Jordan Purchasers/Suppliers Matchmaking Workshop.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 3:21 PM GMT 


Government votes down plan to rescue more child refugees after axing of Dubs amendment;
A threatened Conservative revolt falls flat,despite evidence that ministers are ignoring evidence that local councils are ready to accept more refugees


BYLINE: Rob Merrick


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:4


LENGTH: 543 words


A cross-party bid to force Theresa May to accept more child refugees from Europe has failed, despite a Conservative revolt.

The Government defeated an attempt to force ministers to take up offers from local councils eager to accept more unaccompanied children fleeing conflicts. 

There was uproar last month when the Home Office suddenly axed the Dubs schemeto bring in 3,000 refugees from Europe - when just 350 have arrived.

Read more

Closing down Dubs amendment will increase child trafficking, warn MPs

Ministers have been accused of ignoring evidence that town halls are willing to make thousands more places available, with the right funding.

But the bid - led by Conservative backbencher Heidi Allen - to force ministers to properly audit local council capacity was lost by 287 votes to 267, a Government majority of 20.

Ms Allen had urged ministers to think again, saying: "This debate for many of us is about Dubs - whether we can bring that back to life."

Warning the refugee council was far from over, she added: "I care that we take our fair share to help our neighbours in Europe."

She was echoed by Yvette Cooper, the former Labour leadership contender, who said the end of the Dubs scheme was already proving a boon to traffickers, who were saying "there is money to be made".

Local authorities would be able to provide "thousands more places potentially if they were better funded", she argued.

But Ms Allen's hopes that up to 30 Conservative backbenchers would rebel were dashed, after ministers pledged that auditing of councils' capacity would improve.

Just two Tories joined her in backing an amendment to the Children and Social Work Bill, to place a statutory duty on councils to report back to ministers at least once a year.

They were former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Tania Mathias. Six Conservatives who had signed the amendment failed to vote for it.

Speaking afterwards, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "This vote shames Britain.

"The Government continues to defend the indefensible by closing Dubs against opposition from a significant number of MPs, including those on its own benches, and from the public.

"The Tory Government's decision to turn its back on these children despite local authorities saying they want to help is utterly heartless and heartbreaking."

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

Gary Lineker and Kiera Knightley lead support for child refugee scheme

Full list of MPs who voted against Dubs Amendment for child refugees

Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn

Faith leaders and actor Toby Jones had joined a demonstration outside the Commons to increase pressure on the Government.

Announcing the refugee cap at 350 children - under the scheme inspired by Alf Dubs, a former refugee himself - the Home Office insisted there were no more spaces were available to accommodate them.

But freedom of information responses from dozens of UK councils found at least 368 more spaces available and potentially many more.

In the Commons yesterday, Home Office minister Robert Goodwill sparked anger when he told MPs he did "recognise the figures".

"I suspect that some of the methodology behind them will not bear too much scrutiny," Mr Goodwill claimed.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 23, 2017 Thursday 7:16 PM GMT 


Child refugees in France record plea to Theresa May: 'Please let me see my brother in the UK';
Unaccompanied minors who formerly lived in the Calais 'Jungle' beg UK Government to letthem reunite with family in Britain following Home Office rejections


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:2


LENGTH: 603 words


Child refugees who were formerly residents of the Calais "Jungle" have recorded a desperate plea for Prime Minister

Theresa May

to help them

after suffering months in limbo since the demolition of the camp.

The youngsters, many of whom have family in Britain, can be heard begging the

UK Government 

to let them come to Britain, with pleas of "I have my brother and sister in the UK. Please help me

" and "Please keep your promise".

Recorded by refugee charity Care4Calais, the video endeavours to give a voice to child refugees in France who had hoped to come to the UK legally, after hundreds were rejected by the Home Office in the months since October with little or no reason given

.

Read more

UK closure of child refugee scheme 'creates £20m profit for smugglers'

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

May closes the door on child refugees but keeps it open for Trump

The children, most of whom are aged between 14 and 17, are among around 1,900 unaccompanied minors who were removed from the "Jungle" during its demolition and subsequently dispersed to accommodation across France, where they were told they would be processed for the chance to seek asylum in the UK.

While Home Office officials visited many of the centres in the months that followed, interviews were reportedly carried out quickly and without care, with the interviewers in some cases not even taking the phone numbers of the children's family, leaving no way of establishing ties. Hundreds of children were subsequently rejected with little or no reason given.

Shortly afterwards, the UK Government

announced that it is to end the Dubs Amendment scheme

, which s

o

ught

to bring vulnerable child refuge

es in Europe to safety in the UK, sparking

furore from human rights campaigners and charities

.

One child recorded in the film, 16-year-oldElias

, tells of how he recently broke both of his legs trying to cross to the UK. "I am a minor. Please, I need help from the Government," he says.

"I broke two of my legs to try get to the UK. Please help me, I want to ask for asylum in the UK. Thank you."

Read more

Children Commissioners 'deeply concerned' about end to refugee scheme

Benny Hunter, a volunteer from charity Help Refugees who has been working with Elias, told

The Independent:

"I met Elias in Le Havre where he was sent after the closure of the camp in Calais. He was living with other minors in an apartment block - barely looked after by the state and provided with very little food.

"It's horrific that he has been so injured by his desperate attempts to reach the UK. Elias is a bright and always upbeat teenage boy.

"His positivity seems to have even withstood his injury - but I can imagine the pain that he is internalising and what will happen to him and the other children if they continue to try to reach the UK by clandestine routes."

Charlotte Maxwell, the volunteerwho produced the video, told

The Independent:

"I was working with the minors in Calais during the demolition and they were all promised they would undergo a proper process to seek asylum in the UK and be considered under the Dubs Amendment.

"They were made that promise. When it closed I got all these phone calls from minors saying it didn't make sense because they were in the same situation as many of those who were accepted. The Government didn't offer any real reasons to either them or their families in the UK.

"Journalists come and go on this issue, but I realised it might be really useful to get the minors to record a message themselves and have their voices heard."


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The Guardian(London)


April 12, 2017 Wednesday 11:00 AM GMT 


EU takes aim at Hungary as it lays out plan to protect child refugees;
European commission says detaining children should be 'last resort' in what will seen as a rebuke for member state


BYLINE: Jennifer Rankin in Brussels


SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Version:3


LENGTH: 773 words


Detention of child refugees should be "a last resort", the European commission has said, in remarks that will be seen as a rebuke to Hungary where asylum seekers, including minors, are being held in barbed-wire fenced camps.

The statement from Brussels is part of a long awaited plan to protect child refugees in Europe. About 386,300 children made an asylum claim in the EU in 2016, a six-fold increase since 2010 that has left some countries struggling to cope.  

The EU plan comes one day after Germany announced it was halting refugee transfers to Hungary, until Budapest stops the systematic detention of all asylum seekers.

Related: PM accused of closing door on child refugees as 'Dubs' scheme ends

Under the EU's Dublin regulation, asylum seekers are to be returned to the first country they registered in. Routine detention of refugees is banned.

Hungary announced last month that all asylum seekers older than 14 would be kept in converted shipping containers on the border while their claims were assessed. About 110 people were living in the camps, including four unaccompanied children, and children with their families, when the UN refugee agency assessed the camps last week.

The situation for asylum seekers had worsened since the new law came into effect, the UNHCR said, as the organisation also warned of "highly disturbing reports" of police violence meted out to refugees attempting to cross the border.

Vera Jourová, the European commissioner for justice, described child detention as alarming. "The detention of children... is the last resort solution, this can be used only if it is strictly necessary under exceptional conditions, when there is no other alternative," she told the Guardian and other European newspapers.

The commission is calling for child protection officers to be appointed in all refugee processing centres to help prevent children falling into the hands of human traffickers or extremists.

Many child asylum seekers are aged between 15 and 18. "This is a group of children who are very vulnerable and could be very easily trapped by jihadist ideology," Jourová said.

The commission's support for detaining child asylum seekers in exceptional cases, is opposed by the UNHCR, which says that detention is never in the child's best interests and that it increases the risk of physical and mental health problems.

Hungary already risks being taken to the European court of justice for failure to take in a mandatory quota of asylum seekers, a decision imposed on Budapest in September 2015. The clock is ticking towards a deadline to disperse 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other EU member states (excluding the UK) by September 2017.

Related: Hungry, scared, and no closer to safety: child refugees failed by Britain

The EU's most senior official on migration warned that Hungary risked being taken to the European court of justice if it failed to meet its target. "From September the relocation scheme is ending. This does not mean it is going to die. It will continue," said Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for home affairs,. "EU countries who do not want to be part of our policy, they will be confronted with measures we can take," he said, in a coded reference to court action that could land governments with hefty fines.

The commission is anxious to avoid this option, which is likely to lead to years of legal wrangling.

So far 16,548 refugees have been relocated from Greece and Italy, barely 10% of the promised 160,000. In a sign of retreat from the headline goal, the commission said there were fewer candidates for relocation than expected - 14,000 in Greece and 3,500 in Italy - making the less ambitious target "perfectly achievable".

Avramopoulos visited Budapest last week and said he had raised the commission's concerns with the authorities. "We are discussing with the Hungarians but we don't know yet what will be their final answer."

Save the Children and other NGOs have highlighted the desperate conditions encountered by asylum seekers on the Greek islands, where 14,000 are living in camps. Young children were cutting themselves, attempting suicide and using drugs to cope with "endless misery", the researchers found.

Ester Asin, director of Save the Children's Brussels office, welcomed the EU's new push for child rights. "These are important commitments and we hope they will be endorsed by the member states ... it is high time to implement them. Detention is never in the best interest of the child, it is never the solution. We look forward to working with the commission and especially EU member states to develop alternatives to detention."


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The Times Higher Education Supplement


April 27, 2017


Building a better future for Syrian refugees


SECTION: NEWS No. 2303


LENGTH: 775 words



HIGHLIGHT: Partnership hopes to 'prevent a lost generation' in the Middle East. Matthew Reisz writes


How should universities respond to the Syrian refugee crisis?

Last year, King's College London introduced two Sanctuary Scholarships a year for refugee students. Yet for Joanna Newman, vice-principal (international) who has now gone on to become the secretary general of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, this "didn't seem like a sufficient response". Looking at ways to do more, she consulted Michael Kerr, head of the department of Middle Eastern studies at King's, and then met with Sir Derek Plumbly, a senior British diplomat who has served all over the Arab world.

When asked what King's could do to help, Sir Derek's advice was: "Go to Lebanon, because there are lots of informal camps and refugees, but also people actually making a difference to refugee lives." 

Dr Newman, Professor Kerr and others therefore set off on fact-finding missions to Lebanon and Jordan. What they soon discovered, Professor Kerr said, was "a gap in the market in the NGO sector".

In Lebanon, for example, he explained, some Syrian refugees "attend mainstream schools under the remit of the Ministry of Education". About the same number, particularly from poorer backgrounds, are "educated across the country outside the formal sector". Few emerge with "the skills in English or IT they need to succeed in a university. What they lack is a pathway, including an element of socialisation through support and mentoring," Professor Kerr said.

To take this forward, King's formed Padileia (the Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access) with the American University of Beirut and Jordan's Al al-Bayt University, online learning platform FutureLearn and Kiron Open Higher Education in Berlin. The last of these, now funded by Google, has created a portal aggregating online course content into curricula for refugees based in Germany. The partnership secured five years' funding through the Spheir (Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform) initiative overseen by the British Council on behalf of the UK's Department for International Development.

King's and its academic partners are now developing a foundation programme specifically aimed at bridging the gap between school and university identified by Professor Kerr. From September, this will be offered to 100 students a year identified by AUB and Al al-Bayt - on campus in Jordan and in mobile units in the Beka'a Valley in Lebanon - over a period of eight months. Since vast numbers of refugees put intense pressure on schools, about a third of the places are reserved for underprivileged Jordanians and Lebanese.

In the meantime, and probably around May, Padileia will launch an online platform for Syrian refugees. Initially, this will enable them to access all the courses Kiron makes available in Germany, where some already count as credits towards the first year of university degrees. King's is now carrying out a needs assessment with a view to creating massive open online courses, voiced over in Arabic, in a much wider range of disciplines, potentially bringing in academics from right across the university. Students and staff will also be available to provide mentoring and support.

In the longer term, Professor Kerr said he was optimistic that such initiatives will do something to "promote acceptance of online provision, which is very low in the region. We hope this can lead to an eventual change in legislation, which should also help the disadvantaged populations of Jordan and Lebanon."

There are two reasons why King's decided to focus its energies on Jordan and Lebanon, although the project may eventually be extended into Turkey.

The first is simply that the largest numbers of Syrian refugees are there - official estimates put the numbers at 1.1 million in Lebanon and 1.4 million in Jordan. But because these countries are also safer than, for example, Iraqi Kurdistan, it is much more realistic to expect staff and students to spend time out there, in informal refugee camps or partner institutions. Last year, King's launched its broader Sanctuary Programme so that, as Dr Newman put it, "when you come to King's you are invited by your faculty or department to have something to do with the refugee issue". Contributions can range from donating computers or taking part in a hackathon to going out to teach English in places of refuge.

By "providing a skills set, a learning experience and transferable employability skills", Professor Kerr reflected, King's and its partners should help "enable a cohort of the refugees to act as agents of change in a future Syria. We want to prevent a lost generation."

matthew.reisz@timeshighereducation.com


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 28, 2017 Tuesday 4:09 PM GMT 


Syrian asylum seeker 'hangs himself' in Greece amid warnings over suicide attempts by trapped refugees;
Man found dead asrefugee children as young as nine are found self-harming in camps


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 1082 words


An asylum seeker was found hanged in an apparent suicide at Greece's largest port, shortly after aid agencies warned ofmounting desperation among refugees trapped in the country.

The 2

5-year-old Syrian

man

was carrying refugee application papers when he was found dead near passenger ferry departure gates in Piraeus, outside Athens.

He had hung himself from a kiosk, the  

Kathimerini

newspaper reported.

Read more

European policy 'driving child refugees to attempt suicide'

The Hellenic Coastguard said the man was pronounced dead at the scene, adding that a post-mortem would be carried out.

His death comes amid growing concern for around 62,000

refugees and migrants who remain trapped in Greece by the controversial

EU-Turkey

deal and border closures through Europe.

Asylum seekers continue to arrive by land and in smugglers' boats over the Aegean Sea, where at least 11 people drowned last week, but European nations have refused quotas to relocate refugees and agreed transfers are running behind schedule.

Aid agencies have warned that increasing numbers ofrefugees trapped in Greece, where two men attempted to hang themselves from a tree in February 2016, were self-harming and attempting suicide as desperation mounts.

Sacha Myers, a spokesperson for Save the Children, told

The Independent

the charity was "deeply saddened" by the apparent suicide, adding:"Many [refugees in Greece]have been living in deplorable conditions for months now, with limited access to basic services like education or healthcare, and waiting for the resolution of their asylum claims.

"The constant stress, uncertainty, and anxiety are driving many asylum seekers to the edge."

Refugees in Greece: "Every day you die many times"

Research by Save the Children found more than 5,000 minors are living in "appalling conditions", driving a mounting mental health crisis.

It found that children as young as nine were self-harming and 12-year-olds attempting suicide, sometimes filming themselves in the act.

Read more

Libyan court suspends refugee deal struck with Italy

Boat carrying refugees sinks off Turkish coast with 'at least 11 dead'

More than 240 refugees feared drowned in the Mediterranean

A spike in drug and alcohol abuse by teenagers was also recorded, as dealers exploit them in the camps.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that transit centres housing refugees in tents and shipping containers on Greek islands were well over capacity, with grim conditions and the threat of deportation taking its toll.

Its research has shown rocketing rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, trauma and psychosis.

MSF psychologists have been recording rising rates of attempted suicide and self-harm in recent months, with 12 migrants attempting to kill themselves on the island of Samos in January alone.

Several asylum seekers described their desperation to Human Rights Watch, including those who had fled war and persecution.

Arash, a 30-year-old asylum seeker being held in the EU-sponsored Moria detention centre on Lesbos, said he was tortured and forced through mock executions as a political prisoner in Iran.

"I've attempted three times to kill myself," he told HRW. "The conditions here remind me of the prison in Iran, the nightmares, the threats and the torture.

"I can't leave the island and after such a long time here, I feel that nothing has a purpose anymore. You feel like 'crazy', wandering around without knowing why."

Since 20 March 2016, all migrants arriving on Greek islands have been held while their asylum applications are processed under threat of deportation to Turkey, but legal blocks have slowed transfers and left refugees in overcrowded tent camps for up to a year.

Many lack proper shelter, heating and fuel, several asylum seekers were killed by hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and a gas blast during a period of extreme cold over the winter.

Austria is to seek an exemption from having to accept more asylum seekers under the EU's relocation scheme, arguing that it has already "fulfilled its obligation" after taking in around 90,000 migrants in 2015.

Chancellor Christian Kern, whose centre-left party is attempting to combat surging support for the farright, said his government was sending a letter to the European Commission asking to be excluded from future transfers.

It is a new blow to an already floundering system that only ever covered a fraction of arrival and has barely been implemented because of opposition led by Eastern European nations including Poland.

Fewer than 14,500 asylum seekers have been relocated from Greece and Italy - where 176,000 migrants are living in temporary reception centres-under the two-year EU plan that was supposed to cover 160,000 people before September.

A young girl in Kara

Tepe

camp on the Greek island of

Lesbos

(

Sacha

Myers

/Save the Children)

One of its most vocal opponents has been Hungary, where a new law allowing all asylum seekers to be detained in border camps came into effect earlier this week.

The EU commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said European and Hungarian experts were meeting to discuss that the legislation complied with EU rules and principles.

Humanitarian organisations have called on the EU to take legal action against Hungary over the law and other measures making it increasingly difficult to seek asylum, with refugees reporting being beaten by police near the border fence.

Politicians have defended the measures as means of deterring refugees risking their lives to migrate "illegally" to Europe but, with wars continuing in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere,thousands have continued to attempt treacherous sea crossings.

A grim record of 5,000 deaths at sea in 2016 is on course to be surpassed this year, with at least 811 migrants being drowned or suffocated on boat journeys over the Mediterranean so far in 2017.

Most lives are lost on the treacherous crossing between war-torn Libya and Italy, where numbers have increased since the EU-Turkey deal slowed shorter and comparatively safer voyages over the Aegean Sea to a trickle.

European leaders have vowed to increase cooperation with Libya's fragile government but an agreement struck with Tripoli by Italy in February has been suspended by a Libyan court.

More than 27,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe by sea this year - around 23,000 to Italy and 4,000 to Greece - with the vast majority coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq and sub-Saharan African nations.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


February 9, 2017 Thursday 8:09 AM GMT 


Lord Dubs to take on Government over deceitful child refugee U-turn;
Exclusive: The Government quietly scrapped its commitment to unaccompanied child refugees on Wednesday


BYLINE: Charlotte England


SECTION: UK POLITICS


LENGTH: 1084 words


The Holocaust survivor who forced the government to accept child refugees is demanding they keep their promise after they quietly scrapped a pledge to help thousands of loneasylum seekers under the age of 15.

Lord Alf Dubs said he will challenge the "bitterly disappointing" termination of his amendment to the immigration act, which forcedTheresa Mayto let in the most vulnerable people from countries such asSyria.

He intends to file a Private Notice Question in the House of Lords today, and says Labour MP Yvette Cooper is to raise the "shabby" movein the House of Commons. 

Read more

Man who tried to give pregnant refugee lift to France prosecuted

Austria 'to send troops to protect EU borders' against refugees

Charities unite in anger as government quietly scraps refugee promise

Just hours before the final vote on the triggering of Article 50, the government announced it would allow only 350 unaccompanied asylum seeking children to come to the UK under the scheme which was expected to help thousands, in a statement that Lord Dubs described as "confusing" and "hidden".

"It's been sandwiched between PMQs and all these votes on Brexit - what a way of hiding an announcement," he said, telling

the Independent

he had not been notified of the decision to end his amendment in advance, and believed the government had tried to sneak it through without anyone noticing.

He added that he had never heard the 350 children figure before. "Up to lunch time [on Wednesday] I was under the impression there was no cap," he said.

The statement from Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said local authorities indicated they "have capacity for around 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children until the end of this financial year" - 50 of those spaceshave been allocated for delayed family reunion cases - and said the country should be "proud" of its contribution to finding homes for refugees.

But the new cap on Dubs children is thousands short of the figure suggested by government sources last year, and nobody outside of the Home Office had heard it before the shock statement on Wednesday.

"We knew 200 had come because they've been saying so," Lord Dubs said.

"But the 350... the extra 150 has come from God knows where, they've just cooked it up... It's entirely new."

He added: "They've [the government] recently said they would accept the letter and spirit of the amendment but they are manifestly not doing that.

"I think they're using it as an excuse that local authorities don't want to step up to the mark, and I think it is quite clear from the evidence that we have that local authorities would respond if asked."

On Wednesday, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called the decision "a betrayal of British values".

"Last May, MPs from all parties condemned the Government's inaction on child refugees in Europe, and voted overwhelmingly to offer help to the thousands of unaccompanied kids who were stranded without their families backed by huge public support," Mr Farron said.

"Instead, the Government has done the bare minimum, helping only a tiny number of youngsters and appearing to end the programme while thousands still suffer. At the end of December last year the Government had failed to bring a single child refugee to the UK under the Dubs scheme from Greece or Italy where many of these children are trapped."

Ministers introduced the programme last year after coming under intense pressure to give sanctuary to lone children stranded on the continent.

Calls for the measure were spearheaded by Lord Dubs, who himselfcame to the UK as a childfleeing theNazis,whose amendment to the Immigration Act requires the Government to "make arrangements to relocate to the UK and support a specified number of unaccompanied refugee children from other countries in Europe".

The legislation did not specify a figure, and campaigners had hoped that as many as 3,000 children would benefit from the scheme.

"I never argued that we should take them all," said Lord Dubs, "I argued that we should take our share."

He added: "I was in Greece a few weeks ago, the situation was dire, I think it is sort of arbitrary to say we'll take 350 and that's it and there are some very vulnerable children who are going to be left there."

Judith Dennis, Policy Manager at the Refugee Council said: "The Government's job is far from done; the global refugee crisis hasn't gone away and if anything it's getting worse.

"The UK needs to step up rather than step back and ensure that we pull our weight by offering refuge to more vulnerable people and enabling more refugees to reunite with their families here."

In a written ministerial statement, Mr Goodwill said more than 900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were transferred to the UK from Europe in total last year.

This included more than 750 from France as part of Britain's support for the clearance of the Calais jungle.

More than 200 of those children met the criteria for the Dubs route, while the remainder were transferred under an accelerated process based on, but operated outside of, the Dublin Regulation covering family reunion cases.

Mr Goodwill said: "The UK can be proud of its record of helping refugee children and I can today announce, in accordance with Section 67 of the Immigration Act, that the Government will transfer the specified number of 350 children pursuant to that section, who reasonably meet the intention and spirit behind the provision.

"This number includes over 200 children already transferred under Section 67 from France. It does not include children transferred to UK where they have close family here.

"We will announce in due course the basis on which further children will be transferred from Europe to the UK under Section 67 of the Immigration Act to the specified number."

The Home Office minister went on: "As required by the legislation, we have consulted with local authorities on their capacity to care for and support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children before arriving at this number.

"Local authorities told us they have capacity for around 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children until the end of this financial year.

"We estimate that at least 50 of the family reunion cases transferred from France as part of the Calais clearance will require a local authority placement in cases where the family reunion does not work out.

"We are grateful for the way in which local authorities have stepped up to provide places for those arriving and we will continue to work closely to address capacity needs."


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MailOnline


January 30, 2017 Monday 2:28 AM GMT 


Church leaders speak out against Donald Trump's decision to prioritize evangelical refugees as the President confirms his plan in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network 


BYLINE: CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 923 words



Christian leaders have spoken out against Donald Trump's plan to prioritize Christian refugees, as the president confirmed his decision in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network. 

The segment, which aired Sunday evening, was taped at the White House Friday, the same day Trump signed an executive order banning Syrian refugees indefinitely and closing US doors to visitors from seven predominantly Muslims countries.

During the interview, the president pledged to give priority to Christians applying for refugee status, saying it had been easier for Muslim people to get into the United States than for Christians. Available evidence, however, shows that the US admitted 37,521 Christian refugees and 38,901 Muslim refugees in 2016.

Trump's CBN interview came after the mogul denied that his executive actions represented a Muslim ban, and while protests took place across the nation against the immigration order.

Scroll down for video 

CBN host David Brody asked Trump during the interview: 'As it relates to persecuted Christians, do you see them as kind of a priority here?'

Trump replied: 'Yes.'

When Brody asked again, 'You do?' the president continued: 'They've been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States?

'If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.'

Numbers provided by the Pew Center show that the US admitted almost the same numbers of Christian and Muslim refugees in 2016 - 37,521 and 38,901 respectively.

Syria's population is made up of 93 per cent of Muslim people and five per cent of Christians, according to a 2010 estimate by the Pew Center.

'We have no evidence that would support a belief that the Obama administration was discriminating against Christian populations,' Reverend Scott Arbeiter, the president of World Relief, the humanitarian branch of the National Association of Evangelicals, told the  New York Times.

Christian leaders have said they oppose Trump's decision to prioritize Christian refugees.

'We believe in assisting all, regardless of their religious beliefs,' Bishop Joe S Vásquez, who chairs the migration committee of the US Conference Of Catholic Bishops, told the newspaper.

One of the religious leaders speaking out against the executive order was Jen Smyers, the associate director for immigration and refugee policy of Church World Service, a ministry with more than 30 denominations in its members.

Smyers said that Friday, the day Trump signed the executive order setting up the immigration bans, was a 'shameful day' for the US.

'Christ calls us to care for everyone, regardless of who they are and where they come from,' World Relief's senior vice president of advocacy and policy Jenny Yang told The Atlantic. 'That has to be a core part of our witness-not just caring for our own, but caring for others as well.'

Meanwhile, Trump defended his order on immigration Sunday afternoon, saying in a statement that 'America is a proud nation of immigrants' that 'will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression,' but 'while protecting our own citizens and border'.

He denied once again that his executive order, which bans visitors from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, seven predominantly Muslim countries, was a ban aimed at Muslim people.

'To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion - this is about terror and keeping our country safe,' he said. 'There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order.

'We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days.'

He also placed part of the blame on his predecessor Barack Obama.

'My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,' Trump said of his own measure.

Obama's directive affected only refugees and came after a specific terror threat. Trump's order is broader and applies to all citizens from the seven countries included in the 90-day ban.

Trump also said that those countries 'are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror'.

The mogul told Brody during the rest of the  interview  that he had been relying on his own faith more since becoming president.

'The office is so powerful that you need God even more because your decisions are no longer, "Gee I'm gonna build a building in New York." These are questions of massive life and death,' he said.

The mogul also said he thought he knew would he would pick as a Supreme Court justice but wasn't '100 per cent'.

'I think the person that I pick will be a big, big - I think people are gonna love it. I think evangelicals, Christians will love my pick and will be represented very fairly,' he added. 


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The Guardian(London)


February 4, 2017 Saturday 12:36 AM GMT 


Deportation of Iranian refugee from Fiji an act of thuggery, says lawyer;
Loghman Sawari being held incommunicado in PNG, after being forced on to a plane by Fijian police


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 1228 words


Loghman Sawari, the Iranian refugee summarily deported from Fiji, is being held incommunicado in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, more than 24 hours after he was snatched off the streets of Suva and forced on to a plane.

His Fijian lawyer, Aman Ravindra-Singh, said Sawari's forced deportation, in defiance of an agreement with the country's immigration director, was the illegal work of "hoodlum and thugs", while the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said of Sawari that it was "profoundly concerned for his welfare".

Sawari, who was a child when he was erroneously sent by the Australian government to the adult men's only Manus Island detention centre, fled PNG after three years in that country, during which time he was beaten, abused, and left homeless.

He boarded a flight to Fiji last week under a false name, and had publicly declared from Suva his intention to seek asylum in that country. But, driving with his lawyer to meet with Fiji's director of immigration, he was stopped and arrested by police, who forced him into a car and drove him to the airport. He was flown straight out of the country and disappeared. 

Two backpacks belonging to Sawari - containing everything he owns - have been left behind in Fiji.

Landing in Port Moresby, Sawari was held inside the airport for more than five hours, before being driven out of the international terminal by immigration officers in a dark blue LandCruiser with dark windows. It is not known where he has been taken.

Related: Refugee left homeless in Papua New Guinea after being resettled from Australian-run detention

Behrouz Boochani, a fellow Iranian refugee and journalist on Manus Island, said no one had been able to contact Sawari since he sent a pleading message as he was being forced on to the flight from Suva.

"I'm in a plane and they are sending me back. They arrested me and beat me," Sawari said. He said "dangerous people" were trying to hurt him, and he asked his friend to "tell everyone".

Boochani told The Guardian that since that message no one had been able to speak to Sawari, or ascertain exactly where he was being held.

"I have tried to find out where he is and what's happened to him, but there is no news. Loghman has not been able to speak to anyone since he got back to PNG.

"I'm worried for his safety. They have probably sent him to jail. I know how prisons are dangerous in PNG."

Behrouz said hundreds of people were trying to contact Sawari, and no one could find him.

"I have to share my worry about Loghman and ask from Australian and PNG immigration where is he and what have you done with him? Australia and PNG are responsible for him and Fiji deported him back to a harsh condition that he fled."

The Fijian human rights lawyer representing Sawari, Aman Ravindra-Singh, told Fiji One he had an agreement with Fiji's immigration director that Sawari would present his claim for asylum on Friday morning.

"We took the date as Friday, which was mutually agreed by the director... I proposed Friday and it was accepted, in good faith, because I had to gather the documents to support his application.

"We had to bring in documents from PNG, we have to bring in documents from Australia and that was very important and we kept to our timeline, we did not ask for an extension and we were on our way this morning to Suva, to meet with the director to present our application for asylum."

Ravindra-Singh said the sudden arrest and deportation of an asylum seeker - without first assessing his claim for protection - was an act of thuggery.

"Dark things happened... enforcers, hoodlums, and thugs, that's what we saw. No one could speak about the law today. The police were pathetic, they had no idea what the law was, the immigration department did not know what the law was, showing me the letter and pulling it away in five seconds. Is that how you behave? Is that how you legitimise your illegal activities?"

Fiji is a party to the refugees convention and is legally obliged to assess Sawari's claim for protection. It is unlawful, until the convention, for Fiji to return Sawari to a place where he faces harm.

In a statement, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it had sought assurances from the Fijian government that Sawari would be allow to seek asylum.

"All asylum-seekers are entitled to have their claims for refugee status considered fairly and in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which Fiji is signatory. UNHCR deeply regrets that interventions to prevent Mr Sawari's forced return were not successful, and is profoundly concerned for his welfare.

Related: 'I know they'll kill me': refugee who fled PNG for Fiji arrested and deported

"The UNHCR has long called for refugees and asylum-seekers currently in Papua New Guinea to be moved to humane conditions outside of the country. Equally, UNHCR has urged that no refugees or asylum seekers should be returned there."

The Guardian first met Sawari in 2015 on Manus Island. His time under Australia's offshore detention policy, he said, had been marked by violence and deprivation.

Sawari is an Ahwazi Arab, an ethnic minority in Iran that faces significant, often violent, political persecution at the hands of the Iranian state, as well as discrimination over employment, language, housing and civil rights.

Sawari fled Iran at his mother's urging after his two brothers were imprisoned and tortured by the country's theocratic regime and a cousin was publicly hanged for his opposition to the government.

Sawari carries a picture with him of his defiant relative kissing the hangman's rope as it is fastened around his neck.

Sawari was 17 years old when he arrived on Christmas Island and Australia forcibly moved him to Manus Island, where he was placed in the adult men's-only detention centre.

He was sent to Manus despite carrying a photocopy of his national identity document that showed his birthdate, and telling immigration officials he was under 18.

Conceding the error, the Australian immigration department refused to repatriate him to Australia, instead holding him in an isolation room until he had turned 18.

Recognised as a refugee and moved to Manus's secondary detention camp, the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre, Sawari was allegedly assaulted by a guard when he asked for more washing powder. The guard punched him to the ground and he required hospitalisation.

An attempt to resettle Sawari in Lae, one of PNG's most dangerous cities, collapsed after he was forced out of his accommodation and lost his job after a dispute with a housemate he says was motivated by his refugee status. Sawari ended up homeless and was forced to sleep on the steps of the police station.

He tried to return to detention but was refused, and had spent the past few months living in Port Moresby, where he said he felt in constant danger.

"That place is not safe for me," he said. "I was in danger every day. And my situation is the same for everyone in detention on Manus and Nauru. My voice is speaking for all of them, we are not safe there."

During his conversation with The Guardian, Sawari repeated constantly, almost like a mantra, that he sought only freedom.

"I don't want money," he said. "I don't want go Australia. I want to go for a country for freedom. Freedom, only freedom. I need only freedom."


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The Spectator


March 25, 2017


Leading article: Saving the children


BYLINE: The Spectator


SECTION: THE WEEK


LENGTH: 831 words


When a humanitarian tragedy disappears from our newspapers, there are two possibilities: that the crisis is over and life for survivors is gradually returning to normal - or that the human toll has become so routine as to no longer be considered newsworthy. Sadly, the deaths of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean to seek a new life in Europe fall into the latter category. Eighteen months after the photographs of little Alan Kurdi's body on a Turkish beach generated a huge swell of public emotion, entire families are still dying on a regular basis. In the first ten weeks of this year, some 525 people were lost crossing the Mediterranean. 

Europe is still no closer to ending this outrage. As a continent we have wavered between trying to stem the tide of boats and encouraging it - as Angela Merkel fatally did by briefly opening Germany's doors to migrants in the weeks following Alan's death. Policy tends to be driven by public emotion: torn between compassion for people thought to be in a desperate situation and fears that we are taking in too many of the wrong sort of people, with grave implications for national security.

It is ludicrous to regard migrants who survive their journey across the Mediterranean and land on European shores as saboteurs, out to destroy our way of life. But it's also wrong to see them as the world's poorest and most desperate people. Some may have begun their journey escaping wars in Syria, Somalia or elsewhere, but by the time they board their boats on the southern Mediterranean coast, most have already arrived in safe countries. The Mediterranean leg of their journey is a search for a better life. What they are escaping from is a life in a refugee camp in favour of a far riskier, yet potentially far more rewarding, life of opportunity.

Europe has failed to find a coherent way of addressing the migration problem because its approach is stuck in the 1940s. International law on asylum is still based on a firm distinction between refugees and economic migrants which in practice does not exist: many migrants are a mixture of both. Poverty, combined with lack of opportunity for self-betterment, creates its own form of desperation.

The recent fuss over the Dubs Amendment encapsulates what is wrong with our current debate. This was a proposal from Lord Dubs, a Labour peer who arrived in Britain as a child seeking refuge from the Nazis, that Britain takes in about 3,000 child refugees from Europe. It was inevitable that parallels should be drawn with his proposal and Kindertransport - but the situation has changed, utterly, from that we once faced. We are - or were, until the government announced the end of the arrangement - playing into the hands of people traffickers who are happy to take money from migrants to put them in unseaworthy boats and care not one jot for their lives.

Instead of the Dubs Amendment, the government proposed something better: taking 20,000 children straight from the Middle East and giving them refugee status in Britain. This fulfils our humanitarian obligation while cutting out the people-traffickers. David Cameron lost this argument in the Commons so gave up and started a Dubs scheme; Theresa May abandoned it. She was promptly accused of heartlessness in turning away child refugees, but said nothing in response. She might have mentioned that accommodating refugees in Britain can cost 50 times as much as doing so in Jordan, where Britain is doing a great deal. Indeed, her government is spending more to help Syrian refugees than any country in Europe.

But it must not stop there. As Oxford's Professor Paul Collier argues in these pages, fixing up people with food and tents is not enough. The vast majority do not want to live in camps and will not thrive in them. Far better if refugees could be resettled temporarily in countries close to Syria from which they are much more likely to return, and in conditions which offer them much greater opportunities to support themselves and develop their skills than does a refugee camp. Professor Collier's ideas are taken seriously by Mrs May's government, which now supports companies in Jordan that employee Syrian refugees. No other nation - in Europe or beyond - is doing more in this field.

The government could boast about this. But instead it stays quiet, as if ashamed of defying the prevailing orthodoxy. Her enemies are not so reticent. Nicola Sturgeon has been busy using the closure of the Dubs scheme as proof of the blackness of Westminster hearts.

Ministers need to stop being caught on the defensive and continue the development of a policy aimed at helping the maximum number of Middle Eastern refugees while minimising the evil human trade that is causing so many deaths in the Mediterranean. Global migration is perhaps the greatest new problem of our times, and Britain is leading the world in its response. The Prime Minister should have the courage to say so.


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Express Online


February 10, 2017 Friday 9:01 AM GMT 


'We're on our KNEES' QT audience member SCOLDS panel over NHS crisis


BYLINE: Joe Barnes


LENGTH: 545 words


A QUESTION Time audience member launched a passionate attack on the panel, scorning them over their lack of support for Britain's public services as some encouraged the Government to welcome more refugees. 

The unknown woman hit out after Labour MP Owen Smith told the audience in Torquay he would apologise "on behalf of Britain" to all child refugees who have been blocked from entering Britain after a halt to the Dubs amendment.

The amendment to the immigration act, forced upon the Government by Lord Dubs, himself a Holocaust survivor, made it a legal necessity for Britain to take in vulnerable lone child refugees travelling across Europe.

But people have criticised the foreign aid effort with the NHS and other public services under intense pressure as it faces "the biggest financial squeeze in its history".

Having spent the first portion of Question Time criticising the Government for its "shameful" act in halting the Dubs amendment, the panel then came under attack.

BBC

A Question Time audience member berated the panel after they said Britain should accept refugees 

Urging them to prioritise the NHS and social care services, the audience member said: "Yes I have huge empathy for anybody that wants to come into this country who fears for their life.

"But what about our NHS? What about our social care? We are absolutely on our knees!

"We cannot take anymore people!"

The Government has said it will now only take in 350 child refugees.

BBC

Owen Smith was ridiculed after apologising to refugees instead of backing the NHS Related articles Audience member SLAMS calls to ban Trump's Parliament address Owen Smith's own Lily Allen moment as he apologises to refugees for UK

While their was no figure for children being accepted into Britain, Lord Dubs and his supporters expected as many as 3,000 unaccompanied minors to be taken in.

Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said local authorities could no longer cope with the amount of refugees entering the UK.

In a written statement, Mr Goodwill said more than 900 unaccompanied children were transferred to the UK from Europe in total last year.

More than 200 of those children met the criteria for the Dubs amendment and others under an accelerated processed based on the Dublin Regulation which covers family reunion cases.

Mr Goodwill said: "The UK can be proud of its record of helping refugee children and I can today announce, in accordance with Section 67 of the Immigration Act, that the government will transfer the specified number of 350 children pursuant to that section, who reasonable meet the intention and spirit behind the provision."

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth has bemoaned the lack of funding afforded to the NHS, which last month was described the the Red Cross as experiencing a "humanitarian crisis".

He said: "The NHS is going through the biggest financial squeeze in its history. Every day we see an NHS pushed to the bring because of Tory underfunding. 

"These are some of the worst figures we have seen. Experts are saying standards are being pushed back 15 years or more."

Related articles IDS and Umunna in furious Brexit row over £350m NHS promise A&E patients in England had 'WORST month of delays this winter' Remoaner BOOED on Question Time for claiming 'Brexit will be DISASTER'


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


April 24, 2017 Monday 7:10 AM GMT 


Refugees beaten, abused and tear-gassed as they sleep by police in Calais, report warns;
Exclusive: Broken limbs, facial injuries and severe bruising found to be 'typical injuries'sustained by unaccompanied minorsat the hands of officers in Calais, research finds


BYLINE: May Bulman


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:2


LENGTH: 1885 words


Refugees sleeping rough in and around the Calais area are subject to "endemic" levels of police brutality on a daily basis, an alarming report has revealed, amid concerns that the region is on "police lockdown" in efforts to deter refugees from the area.

Research published exclusively by

The Independent

shows that displaced people, including scores of unaccompanied children, are experiencing routine violence, with some reporting having limbs dislocated as a result of police beatings, while others had tear gas sprayed directly in their faces. 

One 22-year old Palestinian malesaid police had sprayed tear gas directly into his face, broken his glasses and injured one of his eyes. A 17-year-old boy recalled being beaten by police in the middle of the night when he was alone, while another, aged 16, said he had been sleeping with some others in the woods when police ordered them to move, and began "hitting his legs with batons" when they obeyed.

Read more

Paris police stealing refugees' blankets in freezing conditions

Child refugees in northern France 'facing exploitation on daily basis'

Following the child refugee trail through the streets of Paris

In the largest independent study to be conducted in Calais since the demolition of the Jungle migrant camp, the Refugee Rights Data Project surveyed about 53 per cent of the refugees in the area, and found that authorities were taking a "heavy-handed" approach against displaced people, warning the situation was "particularly harmful for children".

The local authority in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region has responded by saying the allegations of police brutality - which it said officers in the area are "regularly accused of" - are "unfounded".

There are an estimated 400 refugees and displaced people residing on the streets of Calais and the surrounding areas at present, with half of them said to be underage. The numbers have increased in recent months, as unaccompanied minors have been returning to the area after accommodation centres they were transported to after the Jungle demolition started to close.

The vast majority of respondents (89 per cent) said they had experienced police violence during their time in Calais and the surrounding region, with 82 per cent describing police treatment in France as "bad" or "very bad". Of these, 84 per cent had experienced tear gas, 53 per cent other forms of physical violence and 28 per cent verbal abuse.

One respondent reported that his shoulder was dislocated by the police, while another explained that his fingers had been dislocated in a similar fashion on a separate occasion. Among female refugees, who make up about eight per cent of the displaced people in the region, a 27-year old Eritrean woman said she had been beaten by the police when she was trying to board a bus, while a 22-year old Ethiopian woman told researchers: "[The police] pushed me to the floor and beat me."

Read more

Child refugees in northern France 'facing exploitation on daily basis'

Ninety-seven per cent of the 89 children surveyed said they had experienced police violence in the area, with 79 per cent reporting being targeted with tear gas, 57 per cent with physical abuse and 21 per cent with verbal abuse. Such attacks were reported to be fairly routine, with two in every 10 children saying they were attacked with tear gas every day, and 41 per cent saying it occurred many times a week.

The report found that while a significant proportion of the police violence is targeted at children as they try to go to the UK, there was also an alarming number of instances of unprovoked police violence - notably unaccompanied youngsters being woken up from where they are sleeping and told to move. Ninety-two per cent of respondents said this had happened to them, with 77 per cent of these describing it as a "violent" incident and 55 per cent saying they "felt scared" when it happened.

AnEritrean boy, aged 17, told researchers: "Once in the middle of the night they threw tear gas on us, while we were sleeping under the bridge. Another time in the middle of the night, two police officers chased me and beat me with a baton and kicked me."

Similarly, a 17-year old Sudanese boy reported: "France police beat me in the middle night when I was alone," while another said: "[The police] recognise me by my hair and they always come after me. They beat me up almost every day. I have had tear gas sprayed on me several times."

The report also found that in a recent development, police are reported to be using tasers on refugees. One 16-year old respondent from Eritrea reported that he had been tasered when the police found him in the port area, while another boy explained that when he came out of a lorry voluntarily, police gave him an electric shock.

Temporary detention of unaccompanied minors also emerged as a routine occurrence, with three quarters (75.3 per cent) of children having been arrested or detained in the area. One Eritrean teenage boy told researchers how he used to have a paper that proved that he was under 18, but the police ripped it and detained him for more than 12 hours without letting him go to the bathroom, and then beat him.

As well as violence from the authorities, researchers also found that children were experiencing violence and abuse from local citizens. More than half (59 per cent) said this was the case, which is a higher figure than in Feb 2016 when 49 per cent of residents in the Jungle had experienced it. Of these, 66 per cent described it as verbal abuse, while 56 per cent said they had experienced physical violence.

Read more

Paris police stealing refugees' blankets in freezing conditions

A number of respondents separately reported that members of far-right groups (referred to by many respondents as "the fascists") circulate in the Calais area and seize opportunities to attack individuals who are alone.

An Afghan respondent explained: "It's dangerous to be on your own, because fascists beat you up," while another reported: "My friend was hit by a black car with loud music, hit from behind, he had his shoulder broken and then the driver escaped and no one mentioned anything."

Citizens are also known to follow refugees around with video cameras and flashlights.

The findings have been backed up by testimonies heard by

The Independent

of people working closely with refugees in the area. Sue Clayton, who has spent time in Calais recently, said police were on "lockdown" in the area, and told of police raids being carried out during the day in an apparent attempt to identity and detain refugees.

"Calais is in police lockdown. I went recently to talk to some unaccompanied minors that I support, who have nowhere to sleep after recently coming back to Calais after the centres where the French temporarily housed them closed," Ms Clayton said.

"I arranged to meet them in a cafe in Calais town known to be sympathetic to refugees, to find it being raided by police - at ten in the morning. We ran off down a backstreet but could see more police patrolling at the next junction, so we bundled into a corner store.

"The shopkeeper immediately picked up what was going on. 'It's like an occupied town,' he said. There's nowhere to go as the police ruling is that refugees can walk the streets, but cannot 's'installer'- meaning 'install themselves'. The police policy of arresting them and taking them to the holding centre for up to four days solves nothing.

"Now that neighbouring Dunkirk has gone too, there is literally nowhere, nothing for these children - for whom the UK and French governments jointly and publicly professed responsibility as they faced the world's press last year in the smoking ruins of the Jungle."

A separate report published on the same day by the Refugee Youth Service (RYS) states that instances of police brutality are "common", particularly at night, with children reporting being beaten and sprayed in the face with pepper spray to RYS staff members on a "regular basis".

The study, called

Somebody's Child

and based on research by the charity during 2016, cites "twisted ankles, broken limbs, facial injuries and severe bruising" being "typical injuries" resulting from childrens' interactions with the police after they were caught attempting to make informal border crossings to the UK.

Cases were largely under-reported, it states, due to fear of reprisal or the perception of a negative affect on any pending legal processes for asylum, while the lack of an independent reporting system meant thatpolice officers were generally not held accountable forviolent actions.

It also cites a failure by police to facilitate access to protection for unaccompanied minors on other dangers they face, such as cases of sexual exploitation, trafficking and issues around missing children - in some cases refusing to take reports of missing children or take a report about potential grooming of achild by phone.

Read more

Surge in child refugees in Calais creates terrifying new market

Nearly half (42 per cent) of the children interviewed said they had family in the UK, suggesting they may be eligible for reunification under the Dublin regulation. But three per cent of the children who applied to join their family under this legal mechanism were refused, while 19 per cent did not receive any result, and the rest are yet to access the system, the report showed.

In light of the findings,Marta Welander, director of Refugee Rights Data Project, said: "The well-known camps in Calais and Dunkirk are gone. However, our latest research findings show that hundreds of children remain in the area - many alone, scared, and facing life-threatening dangers on a daily basis.

"It's time for the UK government to stop trying to conceal this problem with fences and barbed wire, and adhere to its moral and legal obligations to protect these vulnerable children."

Michael McHugh, Refugee Youth Service France coordination and child protection officer, said the report shows a "critical child protection failure" has taken place in the Calais area, urging for "courage and leadership".

"The research findings highlight a critical child protection failure on European soil. Without access to family reunification processes or support to access French and European protections systems vulnerable young people will end up staying in unsuitable conditions for lengthy periods and remain at risk of violence, exploitation or sadly being lost from the system," he said.

"Whichever side of the asylum discussion or political spectrum one sits, it is sadly apparent that our existing asylum systems are not fit for purpose. Courage and leadership are needed to review and strengthen our existing child protection systems to respond to this border crisis.

"Every child is of equal worth and deserving of protection. Sadly across Europe at present, those of us working on the front line with these young people see that this does not translate into practice or policy."

A Nord-Pas-de-Calais local authority spokesperson told

The Independent:

"The accusations of violence towards migrants, of which the national police are regularly accused of, are unfounded. There have been no recent complaints or referrals to the General Inspectorate of the National Police.

"Legal remedies exist and have been used in the past, systematically investigating under the authority of the judge."


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The Independent - Daily Edition


March 4, 2017 Saturday  
First Edition


Charities vow to continue giving food to refugees despite Calais mayor's ban


BYLINE: MAY BULMAN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 26


LENGTH: 1088 words


Refugee charities in northern France have issued a robust response to the Calais mayor's decision to ban food distribution in a large part of the town, vowing to continue to provide aid to refugees in spite of the mayoral decree. Seven organisations that offer support for refugees in Calais have signed a statement expressing their "determination to continue their action", stating that the reason they do this work is because the authorities "do not fulfil their own obligations in terms of law and humanity".

A decree issued on Wednesday by mayor Natacha Bouchart prohibits organisations from distributing aid in Dunes, a large industrial zone in Calais close to where the "Jungle" camp was located before it was demolished in October, ordering a "ban on abusive, prolonged and repeated occupants of the industrial zone". It was not clear how such a ban would be implemented. 

In the joint statement - signed by L'Auberge des Migrants, Care4Calais, Help Refugees, RCK, Salam, Secours Catholique and Utopia 56 - the charities state that their aid distributions "contribute to vital needs ... not only in terms of food, but also to supply blankets and warm clothes to avoid the possibility of death on the street". It proceeds to state that the distributions are important because they help "ensure the safety of Calais residents and traders" and provide "an opportunity to identify medical problems, especially for minors who are victims of the cold", as well as making it possible for refugees to receive legal advice.

The statement reads: "After attempting to prevent Catholic Relief to allow the migrants present on Calais to wash, the mayor of Calais wants to prohibit associations, on the pretext of disturbing public order, to distribute meals. The decree produced by the mayor is inhuman and unworthy. The associations do this work because the State and public authorities do not fulfil their own obligations in terms of laws and humanity. The signatory organisations declare their determination to continue their action. We will continue our distributions."

Following the announcement of the ban, Annie Gavrilescu of Help Refugees told The Independent: "We're publishing this response in the least provocative way possible. We just want legal and safe places where we can continue our work. We don't want to create more animosity with the authorities or with the police. We are just trying to keep people fed but from a legal and safe place, which is obviously proving more and more difficult. The decree specifies the industrial zone, so what we're trying to do is go outside it, and trying to keep people safe outside it. But we don't know how the enforcement of this ban will take shape, so we're just evermore careful."

Asked whether she was shocked by the ban, Ms Gavrilescu said: "From a humanitarian perspective, it's obviously shocking that a mayor is trying to prevent us from feeding children. But from a realistic perspective, having been here a long time, the actions of this mayor are not surprising."

A volunteer at the Legal Shelter, an organisation in Calais that provides legal support to refugees, told The Independent the mayor's order would not discourage refugees from coming to Calais. "This will absolutely not work for stopping people from coming to Calais. They don't come thinking that they will have food from organisations. They come for other reasons than just the distribution of food. It's just an accessory. It's not the reason why refugees are coming to Calais, and of course they will continue to come even if there is no food distribution. There have always been people in Calais, many of them hidden without asking for any food distribution. It will never change. If there are police controls when there are food distributions, of course people will just hide themselves more to avoid being arrested. In 2015 they passed an order to stop people pitching tents in public spaces. It's the kind of decision they always try to take, just to try to make it more difficult for everyone. But in 20 years this has never worked. The charities will probably just move the point of distribution. If many more orders like this come into effect, we are likely to take legal action."

Sue Jex, head of UK operations for refugee support charity Care4Calais, said in a statement: "We are appalled at the ban on distributing food to refugees in Calais, which deprives the most vulnerable people - including unaccompanied minors - of the basic human right to food. This humanitarian crisis is far from resolved and we should not be turning our backs on those who need our support most. We would urge those in positions of authority to lift bans on food distribution, and act now to secure the lives of refugees urgently."

Reasons given for the ban in the mayoral decree include "the regular presence of individuals and groups in the industrial zone for the purposes of meal distribution to migrants" and concern that "the continued and massive occupation in the area are of the nature that they could trouble the tranquillity, health and public security".

Ms Bouchart stated her reasoning for the ban in a press statement on Friday, saying she would "not accept" seeing the economy of Calais "damaged again". "In recent days, a regular and massive presence of individuals has been noted in the industrial zone of Dunes due to the distribution of meals to migrants," the statement read. "I was alerted by people who use the area, notably business bosses and people in the economic world, following tensions arising with organisations and migrants at the time of these distributions. As I have indicated to the director of the cabinet of the Prime Minister during a meeting on 25 January, I will not accept that our economy be damaged again, just as it is beginning to arise from serious difficulties that it confronted last year."

The mayor went on to say that former settlements of refugees in Calais have caused "trauma" for residents of the town, and asserted that she must consequently take "necessary measures" to avoid a repeat of the situation. "Over the months, or indeed years, everyone has been able to see all the humanity that the Calaisian population has shown despite a unique situation in France, which has been a traumatic experience for many Calaisians,"she said. "Because we have suffered so much, because I have been fighting on behalf of industry players to defend the interests of Calais, I must take all necessary measures to prevent a repeat of a situation that has gone on for far too long."


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 12:33 AM GMT 


Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely;
Campaigners were left angry and distraught as details of the ban emerged without warning - causing chaos for many families


BYLINE: By Steve Robson


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 744 words


The brutal reality of Donald Trump's hardline stance on immigration came into force last night when he ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

The President also singled out refugees from Syria as barred from entering the country indefinitely, or until he himself decides they are allowed in.

No visas will be issued to immigrants from seven mainly-Muslim nations including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days. 

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said earlier on Friday at the Pentagon.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

Having given no notice of the ban, the move caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's Mexico wall

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritizing Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritization, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme and halts visas being issued to citizens of several predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq.

It is expected to affect two programs U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.


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South Wales Echo


January 31, 2017 Tuesday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


A thank you to the people who make Wales what it is


BYLINE: Tyler Mears


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 21


LENGTH: 817 words


THIS week Donald Trump's overlymanicured fingers put pen to paper to sign an order halting the US refugee programme for 120 days.

Yes, the walking, talking comb-over, who'd be better-placed behind the tanning counter of a Superdrug store, indefinitely banned all Syrian refugees and suspended the entry of all nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.

And what's worse, a lot of Americans let him do it. 

Yes these people, whether they're just ignorant or blinded by his white teeth and ill-fitting suits, essentially helped Trump to put a target on the backs of millions of people.

And we're not talking about "refugees" or "asylum seekers" as a nameless, faceless, group here.

We're talking about individuals and families - parents separated from their children, husbands from their wives, brothers from their sisters.

Firefighters, doctors, soldiers, police officers, scientists and teachers - people who have spent years working for and on behalf of the country they call home.

We're talking about real people who make a big difference to the very society we live in today, no more so than right here in Wales.

Take Eid Ali Ahmed for example. He fled the dictatorship of General Siad Barre in north Somalia in 1981, applied for refugee status in Cardiff and was given British citizenship.

In the following years he was appointed as an adviser to the Welsh Assembly Government on refugee affairs and become development coordinator of Somaliland Societies in Europe as well as doing his senior job at the Welsh Refugee Council and helping thousands of other people seeking refuge in the capital.

And then there's Raid Ali, a dentist who moved to Cardiff from Iraq in 1998.

Since opening his dental practice in St Mellons and treating thousands of Welsh patients, Raid has also travelled to Calais on a number of occasions to help provide medical and dental support to refugees fleeing war.

He even turned his old caravan into a portable dental practice, as well as just being an all-round cool guy. I parents their children, from their brothers sisters mean, last year he even gave a present to a little girl after she sent him a letter addressed to the tooth fairy with her tooth inside - what a guy!

And there's Salah Rasool.

Salah, who has a biology degree and speaks five languages, fled the turmoil of the Iraqi-Kurdish civil war by trekking across mountains on the borders of Iran.

separated from husbands wives, from their He worked as a tailor in Turkey, avoided jail in Italy and was eventually smuggled into the UK from Belgium.

After arriving in South Wales, Salah went on to learn English in his spare time and started volunteering with the local refugee council as an interpreter.

He even said his wedding vows in Welsh. Ardderchog Salah!

And what about Eric Ngalle? A former refugee, Eric fled Cameroon and paid people traffickers £1,000 to take him to Malta before making his way via Russia to Britain.

He spent his time as a stateless refugee writing and has since become a staged playwright, with his production My Mouth Brought Me Here being performed at the South Bank Centre in London last summer.

There are also loads of amazing women who are helping to shape the future of Wales - Meena Upadhyaya being one of them.

An Indian-born Welsh medical geneticist and an honorary professor at Cardiff University, she was involved in identifying the genetic mutations responsible for two different diseases and developed tests to aid in the diagnosis of more than 20 genetic diseases. Over her career, she's authored more than 200 scientific articles and three textbooks and received awards from the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Inspire Wales Awards, the European Neurofibromatosis Group, and the Welsh Assembly.

She's also a kick-ass women's rights campaigner. She's an advocate for women of ethnic minorities; she founded the Welsh Asian Women Achievement Awards and the organisation Ethnic Minority Women in Welsh Healthcare.

And then there's the group of refugees who handed out flowers in Aberystwyth last year.

You might remember them - the families, from Syria, handed out flowers as a way of saying thank you for the welcome they had received since arriving in the seaside town.

Each flower had a tag with the words "Diolch i chi am eich croeso/ Thank you for welcoming us.... Syrian refugees".

So maybe now it's our time to say thank you.

Thank you to all the inspirational, brave and epic people who help make Wales the multicultural, diverse and open place it is.

Who knows? Maybe it might be a good idea for Trump to visit Wales.

That way he'll be able to meet all the amazing people who call it home.

TOMORROW THE PARENT TRAP WITH RACHEL MAINWARING

year a little sent letter the with her what a guy! Kurdish by mountains borders He in jail in Italy and We're talking about individuals and families - parents separated from their children, husbands from their wives, brothers from their sisters


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South Wales Echo


April 3, 2017 Monday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Outrage over AM's refugee comments


BYLINE: Martin Shipton


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 13


LENGTH: 535 words


A UKIP AM has caused a storm by suggesting refugees should only be allowed into the UK if they would otherwise be in imminent threat of death.

Gareth Bennett also said they should only come here as long as they haven't engaged in political or human rights activity in their home country or haven't passed through another country where they could have sought asylum. 

The AM for South Wales Central sits on the National Assembly's Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee.

He has written a one-man minority report disagreeing with the committee's main report on refugees in Wales, which has yet to be published.

In his report, Mr Bennett quotes approvingly from a column written in the Times by Matthew Parris, the journalist and former Conservative MP.

Under a heading "My Opinion", Mr Bennett states: "The committee's report, by seeking to extend provision in Wales not only to Syrian refugees, but to refugees arriving spontaneously, is not recognising the difficulties of establishing who are the genuine political migrants.

"The danger is that Wales will be complicit in encouraging more spontaneous arrivals in the UK, which the UK taxpayer will then have to pay for. This cannot be right."

Mr Bennett goes on to quote a section from Parris' column in which the former MP suggests a severe tightening of the definition of persecution: "A reasonable fear of death, death alone, and death at the hands of the state or its servants should be the sole qualifier for political asylum.

"There should be no automatic right to bring family members. And the applicant must have taken all reasonable steps to mitigate persecution - such as, for example, keeping out of politics, and obeying the laws of their country on, for example, the status of women, homosexual activity or the public practice of a proscribed religion like Christianity."

The Rev Aled Edwards, who chairs the refugees' support group Displaced People in Action, said: "This is a truly shocking suggestion. It sounds as if to have any chance of being accepted as a refugee, you would have to be sentenced to death and somehow be magicked to the UK. It also seems you wouldn't qualify if you had been tortured and not killed.

"There is a robust definition of refugee status which has stood the test of time and which is accepted across the civilised world. Host countries decide whether to accept people as refugees according to due legal process and can insist on people leaving if their claim does not stand up to scrutiny."

Joyce Watson, a Labour member of the committee which drew up the original report, said: "It is very disappointing that Gareth said nothing while this was being discussed in committee. This was a crossparty committee which was looking at a serious issue.

"Gareth has chosen to produce a Ukip report complete with Ukip branding."

An Assembly source said: "Gareth sat through the entire committee investigation hardly saying a word. We now know why. According to his document, persecuted Christians should stay silent, people threatened with death for being gay should do the same.

"In fact, Gareth says you cannot be a refugee if you question the regime you live under, no matter how brutal it is.

"This is truly appalling stuff."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


May 9, 2017 Tuesday 10:33 AM GMT 


Nearly 250 refugees feared dead after two migrant boats sink in Mediterranean;
Baby among victims of disasters pushingdeath toll for record 2017 above 1,300 people


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:3


LENGTH: 730 words


Up to 250 migrants are feared drowned after two refugee boats sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, the United Nations has said.

A baby was among the bodies washed up on beaches in Libya following the latest disasters, which push the record death toll above 1,300 so far in 2017.

The country's coastguard picked up seven migrants who said they had been on an overloaded dinghy packed with 170 people, which sank on Sunday. 

Read more

Calls reveal how Italy's Coast Guard let dozens of refugees drown

The new refugee route emerging to Europe

Tens of thousands of child refugees 'at risk of psychosocial distress'

Omar Koko, a coastguard commander in the western city of Zawiya, said more than 30 women and nine children were among those feared drowned.

At least 11 bodies washed up on nearby beaches and were recovered by the Red Crescent, while at least 7,500 migrants have been rescued since Thursday.

Spokesperson Mohanad Krima said: "All the bodies are of female victims and there is a girl of less than one year old."

Survivors of a second shipwreck were rescued by the Italian coastguard, telling authorities their boat started deflating under the weight of 130 people.

Based on its interviews with survivors in Sicily, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimated the number of dead at more than 80, with around 50 people rescued.

Migrant arrivals to Italy by sea are up about 30 per cent this year on 2016, when a record 181,000 people were rescued and taken ashore.

"The increasing numbers of passengers on board vessels used by traffickers, with an average of 100 to 150 people, are alarming and the main cause of shipwrecks," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

"Risks are increased by the worsening quality of vessels and the increasing use of rubber boats instead of wooden ones."

As well as drowning, refugees have been killed by suffocation and hypothermia in sea crossings, as well as on land by being run over, electrocuted, shot and hit by trains.

Despite a dramatic increase in deaths at sea, humanitarian organisations operating rescue ships have come under attack for allegedly aiding smugglers.

NGOs have denied all accusations of collusion as Italy's parliament carries out a fact-finding mission, while a prosecutor in Sicily has admitted he has no proof of coordination.

Boat crossings between Libya and Italy - now the deadliest sea passage in the world - have increased since the controversial EU-Turkey deal shut the comparatively shorter and safer crossing over the Aegean Sea.

Italian coastguard rescues thousands of refugees off coast of Libya

The EU is increasing cooperation with the fragile Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) in attempts to combat people smuggling, but efforts have been hampered by the country's ongoing civil war and grave human rights abuses.

Migrants are routinely detained, tortured, extorted or forced into labour and prostitution by gangs, who operate with impunity in the chaos following the British-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Read more

EU plans would trap refugees in 'catastrophic conditions' in Libya

The International Criminal Court is collecting information on the imprisonment of an estimated20,000 migrants and their treatment, amid reports of "slave markets".

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the UN Security Council her office was investigating "serious and widespread crimes allegedly committed against migrants attempting to transit through Libya".

"My office is carefully examining the feasibility of opening an investigation into migrant-related crimes in Libya should the court's jurisdictional requirements be met," shesaid.

Rumours of the horrors awaiting refugees in the country have caused some migrants to divert to neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, as well as attempts to enter Europe via Spanish enclaves bordering Morocco.

Officials said around 300 migrants attempted to cross the 6m border fence separating the enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Tuesday, with many throwing stones and missiles at police.

Melilla's interior ministry said most of the migrants have been pushed back by police but around 100 managed to enter the city amid clashes that let three migrants and a police officer in need of treatment.

Thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan countries have attempted to enter Ceuta and Melilla this year, with those making it across held in temporary centres before being repatriated or freed.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 26, 2017 Thursday 8:31 PM GMT 


Chance of being killed by refugee terrorist in United States is one in 3.6 billion;
Donald Trump expected to issue order suspending immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries despite little evidence to support policy as effective terrorismdeterrent


BYLINE: Lucy Pasha-Robinson


SECTION: AMERICAS


LENGTH: 552 words


The chance of a being killed by a refugee terrorist in the US is one in 3.64 billion, according to a new report that studied the tangible risk posed by immigration.

The statistic was revealed as news emerged ofPresident Donald Trump's plan to issue an executive order

suspending immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, and ban refugees from entering the US for 120 days. 

The draft order, is reportedly titled "Protecting the Nation From Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals" and includes plans to suspend applications from Syrian refugees indefinitely, according to the political website,

Vox.

The new US leader repeatedly championed the policy during his presidential campaign,arguing that it would protect American people from the threat of terrorism.

Read more

Boris Johnson refuses to criticise Donald Trump's plan to ban refugees

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Human rights group voice alarm at Donald Trump's 'weekly hate list'

However, aCato Institute study, "Terrorism and Immigration: A Risk Analysis", found little evidence to suggest this would be an effective policy.

The report saidthe chance of being killed by a terrorist attack perpetrated by an illegal immigrant was one in 10.9 billion per year.

The chance of being murdered by a tourist on the common B visa was 1 in 3.9 million per year, it added.

Critics called the Republican leader's proposed measures "unjustifiable", and a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees called the plans "highly concerning from a humanitarian perspective".

Dr Richard Johnson from the University of Oxford's department of politics told

The Independent

: "He is seeking to introduce this policy on a country-wide basis because he cannot actually fulfil what he said he wanted to do during his campaign, which was to ban all Muslims in the US.

"This is an ineffective and unjustifiable policy in terms of what it's trying to achieve - if it's a security measure then it seems a pretty broad brush one. Some of the most recent attacks in the US have been people born there or who have lived in the country for some time."

Read more

As a Jew, I know the warning signs in Trump's speech when I see them

International Rescue Committee president David Miliband called on Mr Trump to rethink the proposed restrictions.

"We are very concerned by the reports of new restrictions on refugee resettlement into the US and call on the Administration to take its time and think again. Refugee resettlement is an American success story," he told

The Independent

.

"At a time of record-breaking levels of refugee flow around the world, now is not the time for America to renounce its historic leadership role. Our clear message to the new Administration is: now is no time for hasty action."

Mr Trump has denied the policy would be a "Muslim ban" but that it would instead constitute "extreme vetting" of certain nations.

"You're looking at people that come in in many cases with evil intentions. I don't want that. They're ISIS. They're coming in under false pretence. I don't want that," he said during an interview on ABC.

According to the draft, immigration will be restricted from Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.


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UK Government News


April 4, 2017 Tuesday 10:23 PM EST 


PM dedicates &#163;1bn in aid money for Syrian refugees and host countries


LENGTH: 1030 words


U.K., April 4 -- The UK Government made the following announcement:

The Prime Minister gives details of &#163;1 billion in aid to go towards education, skills and jobs for Syrian refugees and their host countries.

The Prime Minister will today set out the details of a &#163;1 billion jobs and education package to support the most vulnerable victims of the Syrian conflict. 

The overseas development funding, an allocation of &#163;840 million pledges made last year at the London Syria Conference along with &#163;160 million of new money, will provide vital support for refugees and the countries hosting them across the region.

This includes Jordan where there are currently over 650,000 registered Syrian refugees. The Prime Minister will witness the challenges facing Jordan first-hand today as she visits a school in the country educating young Syrian refugees and Jordanian children.

Today's announcement comes ahead of a UK co-hosted Syria conference in Brussels later this week and builds on the UK's leadership at the London Syria Conference last year, where the UK made education for children and the creation of jobs in the Middle East the main focus. At the event - following extensive UK lobbying - more than &#163;9.6 billion was pledged in total by the international community, bringing hope to millions of people across the region.

The package of UK support will focus on creating new incentives for refugees to remain close to home so they don't feel forced to make the perilous and potentially life-threatening journey to Europe.

It will focus on providing more education, skills and jobs for refugees and others in countries like Jordan that border Syria, bringing them the stability and resilience to cope with the ongoing influx of people seeking shelter and giving those people the chance to build themselves meaningful long-term futures in the region.

The UK support includes:

humanitarian aid including food, vaccinations, shelter and basic health care for millions of vulnerable people inside Syria and across the region

education for tens of thousands of children in Jordan and Lebanon over the next 3 years, along with work to improve standards and provide vocational training for pupils in Jordan, making it easier for families to build a future in the region

new funding for infrastructure in Jordan and Lebanon potentially creating thousands of new jobs, providing refugees and host communities with opportunities in the region while supporting vital building work potentially including waste water plants, schools and roads

new support and advice to small- and medium-sized businesses in Lebanon to create more jobs for host communities and Syrian refugees

British expertise and technical advice to the governments of Jordan and Lebanon to accelerate private sector-led growth and job creation

Speaking ahead of her visit to Jordan, the Prime Minister said:

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives and millions more have been forced to flee their homes by the barbarity of the Syria conflict. The UK has led the international response to the defining humanitarian crisis of our generation, and will continue to set the pace.

The ambitious approach agreed in London last year is delivering real results and giving refugees what they want - opportunities and education close to home that provide a meaningful alternative to risking their lives trying to reach Europe. This is clearly in the UK's national interest.

I will be urging the countries attending the Brussels Conference to follow Global Britain's lead and deliver on the promises we made in London by stepping up assistance to the millions of people affected by the ongoing Syria conflict and helping to build resilience across the region.

We are a kind and generous country that will never turn our backs on those who so desperately need our support.

Find out more about the &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-ministers-visit-to-saudi-arabia-and-jordan-april-2017"&gt;Prime Minister's visit to Saudi Arabia and Jordan&lt;/a&gt;.

Further information

The &lt;a rel="external" href="https://www.supportingsyria2016.com/"&gt;London Conference on Syria and the Region&lt;/a&gt; took place on 4 February 2016 and was co-hosted by the UK, along with Germany, Kuwait, Norway and the United Nations. It brought together more than 60 countries and organisations, including 33 heads of state and governments. In excess of &#163;9.6 billion was pledged by the international community - the most that has ever been committed for a humanitarian crisis in a single day.

Historic 'Compact' agreements struck with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as part of the London Conference aimed to create at least 1.1 million jobs in the region. Refugee-hosting countries agreed to ensure that no child missed out on the chance of an education as a result of the conflict, including a pledge to deliver education to all refugee and host community children in countries neighbouring Syria.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have now received new training and job opportunities and nearly half a million Syrian refugee children are now in quality education in both Lebanon and Jordan.

The UK committed &#163;1.2 billion in new funding at the London Conference, taking our total commitments at that point to more than &#163;2.3 billion. By the end of 2016, the UK had delivered &#163;550 million in new funding, &#163;40 million more than the &#163;510 million it had pledged for 2016.

Total UK funding for the Syria crisis now stands at &#163;2.46 billion.

The Brussels Conference will take place on 4 and 5 April and will bring ministerial representatives from a large number of delegations, including the EU and the region but also the wider international community, the United Nations, major donors and civil society, humanitarian and development organisations. The UK is once again co-hosting the conference, along with the European Union, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Qatar and the United Nations. The Foreign Secretary and the Development Secretary will jointly represent the UK. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com


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The People


January 29, 2017  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Fury over Trump block on refugees;
Movie director, top doc & heroes barred


BYLINE: Keir Mudie ; Patrick Hill


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11


LENGTH: 588 words


FURY and chaos erupted yesterday after President Donald Trump slammed shut the doors of America to refugees and many Muslim travellers.

An Oscar nominee, a top scientist, and a desperate Syrian family were among those banned from the US under the harsh new immigration regime.

Prime Minister Theresa May came under angry criticism for failing to speak out against the move. 

Mr Trump's executive order closed US borders to refugees for four months and imposed an indefinite ban on anyone fleeing Syria.

In addition, no visitors of any kind from Muslim countries Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are allowed for three months.

Mr Trump said: "We want to ensure we are not admitting the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas."

Movie But last night lawyers were preparing legal challenges as the borders were closed even to legitimate travellers with visas and green cards.

One of those caught up in the new rules was Asghar Farhadi, an Iranian movie director nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. There are fears he will be unable to attend the award ceremony in February.

Iranian scientist Seyed Soheil Saeedi Saravi was stopped at the border while on his way to work in cardiovascular medicine at Harvard.

Professor Thomas Michel, his supervisor, said: "This outstanding young scientist has enormous potential to make contributions that will improve our understanding of heart disease and has already been thoroughly vetted."

A Syrian family of six were also turned away. They had been living in a refugee camp since 2014 and were due to start a new life in Ohio this week.

Danielle Drake, of the refugee resettlement agency US Together, said the ban reminded her of Jewish refugees being turned away from the USA after the Second World War. She added: "People said, 'Never again'. Well, we're doing it again."

Two Iraqi refugees targeted by terrorists for aiding American troops were on their way to safety in the US when the order was signed on Friday and were detained in New York.

One, Haneed Khalid Darweesh, had risked his life working as a US Army interpreter. The other, Haider Sameer Alshawi, also helped US military.

Mr Darweesh is understood to have been freed from detention last night but it was unclear if he will be allowed to stay. The National Immigration Law Centre said it was suing Mr Trump.

Mrs May ducked questions on whether she agreed with Mr Trump's policy at a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, yesterday. Two days earlier she said she was not afraid to stand up to him.

She looked on stony-faced as Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, standing alongside her, slammed the US refugee ban.

Pointing out the his country has taken in many refugees, he added: "Nobody leaves their homes for nothing. They came to save their lives and our doors were open. If someone is in need you give them a helping hand."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us. Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions."

Yvette Cooper MP described Mrs May's failure to speak out as "shocking". She added: "Her silence shames Britain."

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, whose father was a refugee from the Nazis, added: "The PM's refusal to condemn Trump's Muslim ban flies in the face of the values of people across Britain. Silence is complicity."

The diplomatic row escalated last night when Iran said it will ban all US citizens from entering the country.

feedback@people.co.uk


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Evening News (Norwich)


March 13, 2017 Monday


Drive to make schools a safe haven for refugees arriving into the county


BYLINE: PR Script Managers


SECTION: ROP


LENGTH: 685 words


A new county wide scheme hopes to encourage schools to become sanctuaries for those in need of help.

A new county wide scheme hopes to encourage schools to become sanctuaries for those in need of help.

The Norwich Schools of Sanctuary movement was launched at Avenue Junior School last week, as part of a drive to see the city recognised as a City of Sanctuary.
 



The nationwide initiative - which started in Yorkshire and has spread across the country - celebrates good practice of cities, and their schools, that extend a welcome to everyone, from asylum seekers and refugees to minorities.

Jake Brown, Norwich Schools of Sanctuary lead, said: "As educators, many of us have been trying to help our pupils make sense of the refugee crisis in Europe as it has unfolded in recent years.

"The Schools of Sanctuary programme is a way for schools in Norfolk to engage positively with what it means to be seeking sanctuary and refuge and to publicly commit themselves to being a safe and inclusive space where everyone is welcome."

About 30 schools, headteachers and parents attended the launch of the scheme - which is welcoming interest from schools around Norfolk - last week.

Pupils at Avenue Junior have raised more than £1,000 at a Christmas carol concert to buy mattresses for Syrian refugee families resettling in Norwich, while donations of children's books, toys and equipment have been collected.

They are also making a short film, supported by BBC Voices, that explores Norwich's history as a City of Sanctuary, and will paint a mural celebrating their award as a School of Sanctuary.

About 30 parents and staff members have come together to form a Refugee Action Group, to support local communities where possible.

Also, in June, the school plans to hold a Refugee Week in which children discuss the crisis in Europe and will reflect on reasons why people flee their homes.

For more information about the scheme, visit www.norwichschoolsofsanctuary.org and if you are interested in signing up, email Mr Brown at info@norwichschoolsofsanctuary.org

Do you have an education story that we should be writing about? Email our education correspondent on lauren.cope@archant.co.uk

The Norwich Schools of Sanctuary movement was launched at Avenue Junior School last week, as part of a drive to see the city recognised as a City of Sanctuary.

The nationwide initiative - which started in Yorkshire and has spread across the country - celebrates good practice of cities, and their schools, that extend a welcome to everyone, from asylum seekers and refugees to minorities.

Jake Brown, Norwich Schools of Sanctuary lead, said: "As educators, many of us have been trying to help our pupils make sense of the refugee crisis in Europe as it has unfolded in recent years.

"The Schools of Sanctuary programme is a way for schools in Norfolk to engage positively with what it means to be seeking sanctuary and refuge and to publicly commit themselves to being a safe and inclusive space where everyone is welcome."

About 30 schools, headteachers and parents attended the launch of the scheme - which is welcoming interest from schools around Norfolk - last week.

Pupils at Avenue Junior have raised more than £1,000 at a Christmas carol concert to buy mattresses for Syrian refugee families resettling in Norwich, while donations of children's books, toys and equipment have been collected.

They are also making a short film, supported by BBC Voices, that explores Norwich's history as a City of Sanctuary, and will paint a mural celebrating their award as a School of Sanctuary.

About 30 parents and staff members have come together to form a Refugee Action Group, to support local communities where possible.

Also, in June, the school plans to hold a Refugee Week in which children discuss the crisis in Europe and will reflect on reasons why people flee their homes.

For more information about the scheme, click here and if you are interested in signing up, email Mr Brown at info@norwichschoolsofsanctuary.org

* Do you have an education story that we should be writing about? Email our education correspondent on lauren.cope@archant.co.uk


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The National (Scotland)


February 9, 2017 Thursday


Government to close the door on child refugees


BYLINE: Andrew Learmonth


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 634 words


AS MPs hotly debated Theresa May's Brexit Bill, the Tories quietly "shut the door" on unaccompanied child refugees in Europe coming to Britain.

In a written statement, Home Office minister Robert Goodwill announced that a government scheme known as the Dub's Amendment, was to stop at the end of March having taken just 350 children.

Last year, the Government had indicated the number allowed to come into the UK would be closer to 3000. 

The route into the UK was designed by Labour peer Lord Dubs, who was himself a lone child refugee.

After initial resistance, ministers accepted the Dubs amendment when it looked like they might face a sizeable rebellion from their own backbenchers.

Dubs had initially suggested 3000 children, but in a bid to compromise allowed his amendment to the Immigration Act 2016 to go through without a figure. The then immigration minister James Brokenshire had reportedly told MPs the government wanted to place thousands of the lone children in the UK.

In Wednesday's statement, Goodwill said 200 children had already arrived and a further 150 children would follow before the scheme ended in March.

A further 700 unaccompanied children had arrived in the UK under separate EU-wide rules designed to reunite families.

Separately, the UK has also settled 4400 individuals directly from Middle East camps under an international programme to help displaced Syrians, half of whom are children.

Responding to the decision, Lord Dubs said: "At a time when Donald Trump is banning refugees from America, it would be shameful if the UK followed suit by closing down this route to sanctuary for unaccompanied children just months after it was opened."

"During the Kindertransport, Sir Nicky Winton rescued 669 children from Nazi persecution virtually single-handedly. I was one of those lucky ones. It would be a terrible betrayal of his legacy if as a country we were unable to do more than this to help a new generation of child refugees."

The Government look set to face a legal challenge from charities over the planned closure.

Judith Dennis, policy manager at the Refugee Council said: "The Government's job is far from done; the global refugee crisis hasn't gone away and if anything it's getting worse.

"The UK needs to step up rather than step back and ensure that we pull our weight by offering refuge to more vulnerable people and enabling more refugees to reunite with their families here."

The Home Office put the blame at the door of Britain's councils.

"Local authorities told us they have capacity for around 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children until the end of this financial year," the minister said.

He added: "We are grateful for the way in which local authorities have stepped up to provide places for those arriving and we will continue to work closely to address capacity needs."

By the end of 2015 there were around 90,000 unaccompanied migrant children in Europe, displaced and alone. Many had fled war and violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iraq. Some had lost parents during the journey to Europe.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, who was heavily involved in the campaign, said the decision was against the spirit in which parliament had backed the amendment. "To close the programme that helps lone child refugees after helping only 350 children is completely wrong," she said. "The Dubs amendment was designed to help the most vulnerable child refugees of all. Dubs was never time-limited and the government said they would abide by both the word and the spirit of the amendment. No one ever suggested we would only help children for a few months then turn our backs, especially when the global refugee crisis shows no sign of abating. Whatever happened to the government's commitment to ending modern slavery and trafficking?"


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telegraph.co.uk


January 30, 2017 Monday 12:24 PM GMT 


The Muslim refugees converting to Christianity 'to find safety'


BYLINE: By Josie Ensor


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1054 words


Ibrahim Ali remembers his first church service well. The smell of the candles, the cheap plywood pews, and the hymn singing that sounded so foreign to him at the time. 

The 57-year-old Muslim Syrian never imagined that when he fled to neighbouring Lebanon to seek refuge from the war that he would end up converting to Christianity.

But Mr Ali is not alone. Hundreds of Muslim refugees living in Lebanon have been baptised in the past year alone. 

The situation for refugees in the country - which is hosting more than a million and a half Syrians that make up a quarter of its total population - has become increasingly dire over the course of the six-year conflict.  

Some say they converted to benefit from the generous aid distributed by Christian charities, others to help their asylum applications to Europe, the United States, Canada and elsewhere. 

Christian converts are more likely to be persecuted in the Middle East than those who stay Muslims, and are thus more eligible for asylum.

Watch | Spicer: Trump's ban on Muslims is to 'protect' America 01:16

Converting to Christianity is virtually unheard of in Syria, where Islam is dominant and freedom of religion is limited. But Lebanon has a sizeable Christian population and a growing number of evangelical churches, which began springing up across the country in response to the crisis over the border.

Mr Ali fled his home in the countryside of Aleppo for Lebanon shortly after the war started in 2011. He left his wife and seven children behind in the hope of raising some money to send back.

He got a job as a street cleaner and lived in basic accommodation provided by the company. He kept most of his salary with his boss - with no bank account and no home he thought it was the safest place for it. 

After three years he decided to leave, but his boss refused to pay him the $10,000 in wages he was owed.

Mohammed Huzaifa, 10, sells flowers in BeirutCredit: Sam Tarling

As a refugee he had no recourse. While he had had a valid residency permit when he first arrived, Lebanon had since tightened the rules, meaning Mr Ali was now considered to be living in the country illegally.

He could not return home as Aleppo was plagued by fighting, so he resorted to begging on the streets. 

One day in spring of last year he met an Iraqi Christian in a cafe in the poor Beirut suburb of Bourj Hammoud. He told Mr Ali that the church nextdoor was handing out food packages to refugees. 

He went the next day to the Anglican Church of God.

They offered him a bed, two hot meals a day and a small monthly stipend, on the condition he agreed to attend their weekly Bible study sessions. 

"Almost everyone attending the classes was Muslim. Mostly Syrian and Iraqi refugees. I'd never seen anything like it - Muslims singing about Jesus," he laughed. 

He was asked if he wanted to convert and - along with a dozen or so other members of the group - was baptised last April. He was given a new Christian name - Abed al-Massih, meaning Slave of Christ in Arabic.

"Changing religion in the Middle East is a very big thing," said Mr Ali. "In Syria you very occasionally hear of Christians converting to Islam but never the other way round.

"A lot of people are doing it to get to Europe, the US and Canada. While I plan to stay in Lebanon, I know hundreds who been baptised just to help their applications. They would do anything to have security for their family."  

A Syrian refugee woman fetches water at a refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese border town of Arsal, LebanonCredit: AP

Alia al-Haji is one of them. The 29-year-old, her husband and three young children, attend a church in the nearby Christian neighbourhood of Achrafiyeh.

"The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) tells us it doesn't help your application to be Christian, but that's not our experience," she said. 

"The Lebanese hate the refugees, so they make life as hard for us as possible. My son is sick and we can't afford medicine. My husband is not allowed to work - I feel we will die here if we stay," said Mrs Haji, who uses a pseudonym as her family in Syria do not know of her plans to convert.

Once baptised, she plans to apply to Canada for asylum. 

The Hajis live in a one-bedroom apartment with two other families, none of whom have work permits. 

Mrs Haji is considered one of the lucky ones. Most Syrian refugees spend years in camps, dependent on handouts. 

Michel Aoun, Lebanon's new president, last week warned that the country could no longer support the burgeoning number of refugees and that the government would begin sending them back to "safe zones" in Syria.

Pastor Said Deeb at the Church of God, where Mr Ali was baptised, said scores of refugees come to him every week.

"I have people begging me to help them become Christian," he told the Telegraph from his office above the church in Bourj Hammoud. "They think it will help them claim asylum abroad. They say 'just baptise me, I will believe in whoever just to leave here'."

Some charities accuse the evangelical churches of exploiting the refugees' situation by pressuring them to convert.

In response to claims of encouraging "rice Christians" - a pejorative term used to describe someone who has formally declared themselves a Christian for material benefits rather than for religious reasons - Pastor Deeb said that he expected people to first come to Christian agencies for practical help. 

"But even if they come for the food and clothing, we see that God changes their hearts," he said. "We never force anyone into the religion, it must be their choice, they must accept Jesus."

Conversions in the Middle East are fraught with difficulties and dangers. People that decide to change their religion often face being cast out by their communities. 

Pastor Deeb said he has received dozens of calls and messages from the friends and relatives of those he has baptised, threatening to kill him for encouraging "apostasy". 

When Mr Ali's family, who come from a small, conservative village outside Aleppo, found out what he had done they refused to accept it. 

"They told me I was dead to them, that I was to never come back to Syria as I had bought shame on them. They even held a funeral for me and told everyone I had died. They'd rather that then tell them I had left Islam.


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The Spectator


April 1, 2017


Letters


BYLINE: The Spectator


SECTION: THE WEEK


LENGTH: 881 words


No blanket solution

Sir: Paul Collier is right to say that the refugee crisis will not be solved with tents and food alone ('The camps don't work', 25 March). But context is everything, and aid remains vital. 

In middle-income countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, getting refugees into jobs is essential. Businesses are part of the jigsaw. So is government legislation to ensure, for example, that refugees get work permits or can register as self-employed. So too are labour market interventions that generate incentives to get refugees working.

However, in fragile and impoverished states that lack functioning markets and governments, different forms of aid are required. Collier rightly highlights the principles of autonomy and integration, but job creation or community integration for those starving in Yemen or South Sudan won't help save lives. Food and medicine have to be the top priorities here.

The important question is how to provide better aid for refugees in all crises and contexts. This requires an obsessive focus on evidence: collecting data to assess what is cost-effective and cost-efficient, admitting failure where interventions don't work, and innovating across the response, from job creation to healthcare, housing and emergencies.

Countries like Britain can provide aid and strong support through institutions like the World Bank. There is one other thing: welcoming refugees to our own shores offers the most vulnerable (and most vetted) substantive help. It is also a symbolic stand with countries bearing the greatest load in the refugee crisis.
David Miliband President and CEO, International Rescue Committee, New York City

SNP regretters

Sir: I believe Ian Olson's wisdom, not to say common sense, is letting him down (Letters, 25 March) when he argues that nationalists now speak for Scotland. It is far more likely that the SNP's resounding victory in the election after the referendum happened because Scots believed that the question of independence had been settled for the next 25 years. The SNP were therefore a safe alternative to Labour. I know many people who voted SNP and now bitterly regret it.
Stephen Love Kirkmahoe, Dumfries

Long lives

Sir: The figures you quote in Barometer (25 March) relating to the 'March of the Centurions' are remarkable. In 1952, when the Queen ascended the throne, only 225 people reached 100 and received the royal telegram.

Using the figure you quote of 14,500 people reaching 100 in 2016, this represents a compound interest growth rate of around 7 per cent - a significant factor in the impact of budgeting for the NHS. Those reaching 100 traditionally receive a signed birthday card from the Queen, who is now issuing them at a rate of 40 each day!
Robin Michaelson London W14

So and so

Sir: In common with many others, I have over recent years become increasingly irritated by contributors on the BBC starting a reply to a question, or a sentence with 'So' - inevitably reminding me of my schoolmistresses in the 1950s. You can therefore imagine my disappointment when I read the first word of Sarah Sands' diary piece (25 March). Printed with a large bold 'S'.

Equally disappointing was to discover that her next destination is BBC Radio 4's Today programme, which probably attracts the largest number of offenders. Perhaps a quiet word in her ear?
John Newman. Pattishall, Northants

The Bercow problem

Sir: I write following Lord Lexden's letter to The Spectator about my MP, John Bercow (Letters, 24 February). I guess I am the 'impressive local Tory' who thought in 2009 that the Conservative party should field a candidate against the Speaker. I was chairman of the Buckingham Constituency Conservative Association from 1999 to 2003, and am currently president. I have always been a good friend of John and still am - but it irks me that I cannot currently cast a vote for the Conservative party at parliamentary elections. The fact that I expressed these views to the BBC at the time on Newsnight caused Conservative party headquarters to crack the whip and stern instructions were issued to local members by the constituency chairman to fall into line.
Sir Beville Stanier Whaddon, Bucks

Gene genies

Sir: It was a surprise to me that there were no letters in response to Mary Wakefield's excellent and timely article on Crispr Cas-9, the latest technique in gene-editing (11 March). I can't think of any other current issue which has such alarming and ominous implications.

The manipulation of life is not a new idea, of course; it was explored, for example, in a small book published over 70 years ago, written - perhaps surprisingly - by C.S. Lewis. Although only three chapters long, The Abolition of Man bears all the hallmarks of sustained deep thought.

The book is still in print - rightly so - and those who share my concern about this whole business of genetic engineering could do worse than obtain a copy and give it their full attention.
Febrin LePadden Thornton Heath, Surrey

It isn't safe!

Sir: I agree with Charles Moore's forecast that before long even everyday activities like home cooking will be on Health and Safety's hit-list (Notes, 25 March). If only the nanny brigade would learn what the rest of us already know: that living itself reduces our life expectancy.
Peter Isdell-Carpenter Chawton, Hants


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chroniclelive.co.uk


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 8:09 PM GMT 


Why an exhibition focusing on refugees is proving a big attraction at Baltic;
Virtual reality wizards and Serbian artists with paper and crayons contribute to the success of Disappearance at Sea - Mare Nostrum


BYLINE: By David Whetstone


SECTION: WHAT'S ON


LENGTH: 1115 words


The refugee crisis has been a grim staple of newspapers and TV bulletins but an art exhibition offers another compelling perspective.

Disappearance at Sea: Mare Nostrum, inBaltic's ground floor gallery, doesn't assail visitors with heart-rending photos of desperate souls.

In the media there have been plenty of those visions of helplessness which can make you feel helpless.

Rather it is subtle and visually absorbing. I visited once and then a second time, on a mid-week morning, to find it milling with people.

Curated by Baltic's Alessandro Vincentelli, it focuses on the perilous journeys taken by many refugees (one million during 2015 alone) fleeing wars in the Middle East and persecution elsewhere. 

The Mediterranean (or Mare Nostrum, 'our sea' in Latin) stands between these desperate people and safety and many, as the exhibition title suggests, don't make it.

"I was keen to draw attention to the reality of a terrible humanitarian disaster," said Alessandro.

"The official figures say about 5,000 people died while crossing the Mediterranean to Europe last year but the real figure could be much bigger.

"This exhibition brings together 10 projects by artists and collaborations between artists and geographers and people from other disciplines."

It's clear that artists have been on the case for quite some time.

While there are new commissions, the exhibition also includes two prints dating from 2008 by Turner Prize-winning photographer Wolfgang Tilmans.

They show a cold sea and a pile of discarded lifejackets and relate to a rescue mission off the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

The exhibition's main attraction, in that it invites visitor participation, is a virtual reality (VR) experience created by ScanLAB Projects and Embassy for the Displaced, a design-based collective that documents refugees' journeys.

ScanLAB Projects, specialists in large-scale 3D scanning, contributed to the TV series Italy's Invisible Cities which had presenters Alexander Armstrong and Dr Michael Scott donning VR headsets to revisit uncannily recreated ancient sites.

Compassion and reason can prevail over people's xenophobia of refugees

Co-founder Matt Shaw, an architect by training, was at Baltic to install Displaced Witness, a VR record of a trip he made 12 months ago to Skala Sikamineas, a village on the Greek island of Lesvos (or Lesbos).

Because it's just six kilometres from Turkey, this is where many refugees choose to cross in dodgy inflatables.

Survivors, after arriving exhausted and hungry, get a friendly welcome from the volunteers of Lighthouse Relief. "A lot of them are excited because they've made it," said Matt. "But they really haven't."

After the smile and the hot drink, they are bussed to special centres to be processed. Their ordeal is very far from over.

Having used the 3D scanner to record at four specific locations, Baltic visitors can put on the headset and share Matt's view of the refugees' point of arrival, the camp, the lighthouse (built to signal dangerous rocks, it draws the refugees towards it, ensuring an often perilous landing) and the piles of lifejackets and rubber boats strewn on the beach.

Don't worry too much about wasted lifejackets. Matt said many of them are fakes, cynically sold to refugees.

The headset transports you to a sketchy version of these locations. You hear Matt's questions and the replies and you have to keep your nerve when apparently perched high on a cliff.

Near to this installation are the brilliant digital creations of Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, of an outfit called Forensic Architecture.

I put on the headphones and listened to the commentary as the tragedy of the so-called 'left-to-die boat' unfolded on a screen showing a digital map of the Mediterranean with moving pinprick lights for big ships and an illuminated snail trail tracking the forlorn progress of this doomed vessel.

It set sail from Libya in 2011 with 72 refugees on board but ran out of fuel less than half way to its planned destination of Lampedusa.

For a fortnight the boat drifted and the passengers resorted to drinking seawater as all those who could have saved them, and were in a position to do so (a helicopter twice hovered overhead), did nothing of the sort.

In the end the boat was washed up - back in Libya. One woman died on the beach, another refugee died shortly afterwards, leaving just nine survivors who were promptly locked up.

In a heroic act of reconstruction, using digital traces and survivor testimonies, Heller and Pezzani tell the sorry tale in this work called Liquid Traces.

In a neighbouring darkened room is a film called Horizon by London-based Syrian artist Hrair Sarkissian.

Hrair, unable to return to his home country where his parents still live, was at Baltic to explain how he used a drone to film - in real time - the crossing, well known to many refugees, from the Turkish fishing town of Kas to the Greek island of Megisti.

Tomo Brody met refugees in the 'jungle' camp at Calais, inviting them to tell their stories but filming only their hands.

The voices (in many languages but subtitled) are surprisingly soft and dispassionate as they relate their personal horrors; the expressive hands need no translating. The piece is called Humans After All.

James Bridle's Wayfinding is a clever piece of kit and looks remarkably similar to the 'chartbeat' screen in our newsroom which shows which news items are attracting most attention online.

Bridle's two-channel real-time installation gathers news headlines and tracks their use to gauge the climate of openion across Europe with regard to refugees and migrants.

A compass-like arrow on the floor points in the direction of the greatest well of compassion at that time.

Among the headlines showing on Wednesday were "Ethiopia: UN denounces Trump's travel ban" and "Iran to stop using US dollar in response to Trump's 'Muslim ban'."

One of the most revealing exhibits isn't digital. It's a series of route maps made by artists in a Serbian village who, between 2013 and 2015, asked refugees to describe their journeys.

The maps, with crayon-drawn dots and lines, are like something from a children's book or a Tolkien novel. But each speaks of danger and desperation, with dangerous sea crossings, long walks through hostile terrain with no food, confrontations with "mafia" and rip-off bus and taxi fares.

The refugees who worked with the artists of the Skart collective, led by Djordje Balmazovic, came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Guinea, Senegal and Syria.

Safety, it will make you think, is too easily taken for granted if you are lucky enough to live in it.

Disappearance at Sea - Mare Nostrum runs at Baltic until May 14. Details:www.balticmill.com


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The Guardian


January 13, 2017 Friday 4:14 PM GMT 


European countries mistreating refugees in cold weather, says UN;
Refugee agency claims people being pushed back over borders, beaten by police and having phones and clothes confiscated


BYLINE: Nadia Khomami


SECTION: WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 784 words


Refugees and migrants at risk of dying in the severe cold weather sweeping across Europe are being moved back over borders and subjected to violence and confiscations, the UN's refugee agency has said, as it calls on governments to do more to help.

The UNHCR said at least five refugees had died from the cold weather since the start of the year, as temperatures dropped as low as -14C in parts of Greece, and several countries saw some of the heaviest snowfall in years.  

The fatalities include two Iraqi men, whose bodies were found in south-eastern Bulgaria after they had crossed from Turkey, and a young Somali woman whose body was found in the same region. A 20-year-old Afghan man died of complications resulting from exposure to the cold after crossing the Evros river at the Greece-Turkey border at night, when temperatures fell below -10C.

"Saving lives must be a priority and we urge state authorities across Europe to do more to assist and protect refugees and migrants," the UNHCR spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.

The UNHCR has transferred hundreds of people on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chio to warmer accommodation, but there are still more than 2,500 people living in Lesbos' Moira camp - described on Friday as denying its inhabitants the most basic human dignity.

Diane Sampson, an American paediatrician, told Reuters she had treated desperate patients in Moira suffering from frostbite, shivering with cold and drenched by snow and rain that had washed through the flimsy tents they were staying in.

"In a situation like that our main responsibility is to look at these human beings and treat them like human beings. This place lacks basic human dignity," she said.

UNHCR is also deeply concerned about 1,000 people, including families with young children, living in unheated tents and dormitories on the island of Samos.

During a fiery exchange in the Greek parliament earlier this week, the migration policy minister, Yannis Mouzalas, conceded that people trapped in the country were living in appalling conditions exacerbated by the weather. "The situation in the hot spots is very bad," Mouzalas said. "Conditions on the island are awful."

In Serbia, more than 82% of the 7,300 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants were living in heated government shelters, but the UNHCR expressed concern about the situation of 1,200 males, including up to 300 unaccompanied or separated boys, who were sleeping rough in inadequate informal sites in Belgrade city centre.

"Given the harsh winter conditions, we are extremely concerned by reports that authorities in all countries across the western Balkans route continue to push back refugees and migrants from inside their territory to neighbouring countries," Pouilly said.

Some people had alleged violent treatment by police, she added, and some said they had had items of clothing and phones confiscated, preventing them from calling for help once stranded.

Staff from the UN children's agency who were working across central and eastern Europe, and parts of southern Europe, reported "grave humanitarian consequences" of freezing temperatures.

Lily Caprani, Unicef UK's deputy executive director, said on Friday that the weather had increased the risks of outbreaks of influenza and acute respiratory infections, especially among children under five.

Related: UK urged to transfer child refugees from freezing Europe camps

"Thousands of migrants and refugees are trapped in freezing conditions in shelters that are ill-adapted for winter in Greece and the Balkans," Caprani said in a statement to the Guardian. "Refugee and migrant children and women in asylum seeker centres and other hosting accommodations are particularly vulnerable when facilities lack adequate heating."

Jennifer Scott, the refugee crisis programme manager for the British Red Cross, said many in Greece had been living in poor conditions for months and the cold weather was making their situation even more desperate.

"In the mainland, thousands are living in industrial warehouses that are unfit for living under normal circumstances, let alone in sub-zero temperatures. On the islands, more than 16,000 people are living in crowded camps, most of which are out in the open and bitterly exposed," Scott said.

Unicef released data showing that 25,800 unaccompanied and separated children arrived in Italy by sea in 2016, more than double the number who arrived the previous year, leading the charity to call on the British Home Office to take urgent action.

"Just three unaccompanied children were transferred from Italy to the UK last year. In a year when the number of arrivals doubled, that is a concerning statistic," Caprani said.


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Belfast Telegraph


January 26, 2017 Thursday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


How we're bringing hope to refugees fleeing from terror;
Co Down musician Tommy Sands is leading a humanitarian effort to help refugees forced to flee their homelands. Linda Stewart talks to the singer, an Argentinian nurse Lidia Lammardo and Rostrevor aid worker Johnny Clark about the tough camp conditions


BYLINE: Linda Stewart


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 26,27


LENGTH: 1425 words


Young people working with Youth With a Mission in Rostrevor witnessed shocking scenes after they travelled to refugee camps in France and Lebanon, bringing clothes and medical supplies.

People in Rostrevor helped to raise (EURO)5,000 in order for the group to buy enough wood for refugees at the camp near Dunkirk to make it through the winter, yet 11 people have already died of hypothermia. Co Down musician Tommy Sands, who has supported the group for many years through the Music for Healing events aimed at bringing politicians together to talk, described the help provided by the Rostrevor people as a "great thing".

"There are so many people losing their homes and at a time when we see refugees as people taking jobs or getting in the way. We have to bear in mind that many of them are coming from war-torn places," he adds.

"Very often the arms are going there from our west-ern world and there are refu-gees fleeing from cli-mate change which has been brought on by our industrial world," he claims. "If you export arms, you must not complain when you import refugees," is his hard-hitting message. 

The group is currently collecting sleeping bags and shoes, particularly trainers for men, for their trip in three weeks' time.

Lidia Lammardo (44), from Argentina, has just returned from the camp near Dunkirk in France. She says: Iused to work as a nurse and wanted to take part in this project because I wanted to use my skills. I wanted to get involved in this.

As part of the group I lived in Belfast and took teams from Poleglass, the Shankill and the Falls to the Palestinian Territories and Israel to do community work.

This was the first time I have gone to the camp in France and my experience is that it has probably been the hardest, but I'm glad that I was involved.

The whole village of Rostrevor was involved in this initiative to bring clothes and hats in 10 suitcases.

When we got there we realised how hard the conditions are. All the people have stories of family members being killed. They are in France, but they know it is temporary and they live in constant fear of being deported back to where they know they will be killed.

There was a 16-year-old Kurdish boy who worked with the military in his homeland as a translator when they were infiltrating the village. But the military moved away and when Isis moved in, he and other boys were in danger for their lives so they had to run away.

The land for the camp was acquired by Medecins Sans Frontieres from a private owner and they have built a kids' centre where children come and stay for a few hours in safety. There is a women's centre, too, and a communal kitchen.

The worst part is the cold, the sickness and general hopeless atmosphere. When the temperature drops to -5C, the mud freezes. And there is nowhere to stay except the huts, nowhere to relax or sleep well.

There are people from Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria and also some Iranian Christians who fled because they were being persecuted and threatened with death.

Everything is grey and cold. People try not to get up early in the morning because it is freezing. Ten to 20 volunteers cook lentil soup every day in big pots. Everything takes hours to cook when you are feeding that number of people.

They have fruit and lentil soup for breakfast, and at 2pm lunch is served by a French organisation which previously worked at The Jungle camp, near Calais The refugees are not sitting around through choice. It has really struck me that they are forced to do nothing, but that is not what they want. They come to help the volunteers cook.

There is one man, Mohammed, who is a professional chef and he will come in the afternoon and chop vegetables for three hours in order to help.

When I got the chance to have a chat with him, he said his mother, father, brother and sisters had their necks cut by Isis. In that moment he started to cry suddenly - we couldn't speak.

I asked him 'why did he want to go to the UK?' and he said the only person he has left is a childhood friend of his mother who lives in the UK. There is a yearning for that sense of belonging. There are a lot of single men because they were the ones that were able to run. Their families and young kids were killed and they were the only ones who were able to escape.

What does it take to be a man who has run away because all his family have been killed? He doesn't even want to be alive.

Most of them, to be honest, want to come to the UK because they have some family member or a community there. They want safety.

But they want the ability to work with their hands and work as part of a community. They don't want to be receiving charity."

Jonny Clark (42), married to Jenny with three boys, brings groups to the refugee settlement in Lebanon. He says: We run a retreat centre here in Rostrevor, a charity. It's a Christian organisation with all sorts of people from all over the world. We are trying to develop a social conscience in young people and a heart for reconciliation to become bridge builders.

A big part of that is using our faith in action rather than words. Our volunteers are trained for work in refugee camps, in what to do and how to approach people. We send groups out to Burundi, Lebanon and Dunkirk where there are refugee camps.

In Lebanon we are working in two areas - we are talking to people about the power of forgiveness, trying to help people in Lebanon who are suffering from the trauma of civil war. We are also going into refugee homes every day, visiting families, taking clothes and very basic medical supplies. We work with an organisation that helps to run a school - we do practical work, clean and teach English.

There are 1.5 million refugees in a country of four million and the government doesn't really want refugees - they're not trying to keep them there and not keen on helping them.

Almost all of the refugees there are Syrians fleeing the civil war. Almost everyone has stories of family members that were shot.

The very first tent we went into in the camp at the village of Damour, we found that the husband had been killed. The family were from a city in Syria and the husband was taken. He was found a few days later - he had been tortured, killed and left for dead. The two young girls and their mum had to flee to safety.

In the school the teacher was teaching the 'R' sound and said 'Rrrm' for the sound of a car and a little girl said 'Rrrm for car and ooooh for rocket'.

Every child has experienced significant trauma and war - it's just normal. You're not going to leave your home and take your family to Lebanon where you're not wanted unless you have to.

Lebanon doesn't have traditional refugee camps - land has to be rented to put the tents on and the refugees are not allowed to earn money. They are only allowed to carry out manual work at a banana plantation for a stipend.

A lot of them get up early, cook early and go to work in the banana plantation. They've got kids who do it as well - they're going out with their mum, doing hard manual work all day and coming home very tired late at night.

They're very much reliant on the aid that we get from the United Nations - it gives a stipend, but that is being reduced every year because the money is running out.

It's a hard life - snow in the winter and very hot in summer. Some of the families live in little derelict huts but most of them live in tents. There's another camp at the Bekaa valley where there are whole fields covered in tents.

It's very common for people to get sick. There are quite a few pregnant women and sometimes they have secondary issues, yet they will be out working in the fields all day on the banana plantation.

We brought a couple of dentists with one group and they were able to bring some basic dental kits with them, and on another trip we brought a GP who was able to carry out very simple checks.

They don't have very much money and if you need a doctor you have to pay.

They will get a permit for a year and then when it runs out they have to leave, but often they don't - they just stay illegally sometimes.

But you get the feeling that none of them want to live there. They are hoping the war will end in Syria and they can go home, or they find a way of getting out of Lebanon, getting to Turkey and into Europe."

Anyone wishing to help or donate can contact Youth With A Mission visit www.ywamrostrevor.org/

? The worst part is the cold, the sickness and the general hopeless atmosphere

'All the people tell stories of family members being killed'

'The children are out all day doing hard manual work with their mum'


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GRAPHIC: Helping hand: Lidia Lammardo with some of the refugeesBringing hope: Jonny Clark (left) along with other volunteers and young refugees at the camp in LebanonSqualid scenes: day to day life in the refugee camps


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Irish Examiner


January 5, 2017 Thursday


Italian logjam stalling refugee programme


SECTION: IRELAND


LENGTH: 743 words


Just 323 migrants and refugees who made the precarious Mediterranean crossing to Italy or Greece, have arrived here so far. Another 80 are being interviewed in Athens, and are expected to arrive shortly.

Ireland agreed to take in 2,662 refugees from Italy and Greece following European Council decisions to help Italy and Greece, who were overwhelmed by migrants fleeing the Middle East and Africa since 2015.

Up to 1,089 of asylum seekers were to be taken from Greece and 623 from Italy, with a decision yet to be made about from which country the remaining 910 will come. 

But no migrants have transferred from Italy to Ireland yet because of the bureaucratic logjam.

According to Immigration Minister David Stanton, in the case of Italy, serious difficulties persist as the Italian authorities have taken a position that they will not allow security assessments on Italian soil by An Garda Siochána of applicants for re-location.

There have been several attempts to resolve this issue including a bi-lateral intervention by Italian counterpart. Efforts continue to resolve this matter and I remain hopeful that a solution can be found, the East Cork TD said in response to a parliamentary question from Kildare South Fianna Fáil TD, Fiona O Loughlin.

A Garda spokesman was unavailable for comment.

To date, 239 asylum seekers, mostly families, who crossed the Mediterranean to get to Greece, have been taken in here.

Another 84 have been cleared to travel from Greece and arrangements for their transportation are being made by the Irish Refugee Protection Programme which includes officials from the Department of Justice, the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, gardaí and agencies such as the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, when necessary.

The Department of Justice has said it should meet its commitment to take 1,089 people from Greece by the end of the year.

The intention is to sustain the pace of intakes throughout 2017 at the levels required to allow Ireland to meet is current commitment within the timeframe envisaged by the council decisions, said Mr Stanton.

Ireland also made commitments to take in Syrian refugees from camps in Jordan and Lebanon under the UNHCR-led refugee resettlement programme.

Already, under this scheme, 519 Syrian migrants, out of an allocated 520, have come to Ireland from these camps. These refugees have all travelled ahead of deadline.

The Government also agreed to take in an extra 520 refugees from Lebanon this year.

Up to 260 of these people have already been chosen following a selection mission in October and are due to arrive this Spring.

The remaining 260 will be selected in the coming months.

New act to speed up asylum process

Asylumseekers should spend less time surviving on 18 per week in direct provision waiting for their applications to be processed because of the enactment in the past week of the International Protection Act, according to the Department of Justice.

According to Minister for State David Stanton, the act, enacted on December 31, will lead to the introduction of a single application procedure for asylumseekers whereas under the previous act, the process was multi-layered and more cumbersome.

Mr Stanton said the act responds to 26 of the 173 recommendations made in the McMahon Report, the landmark review published by the first-ever working group on improvements to the asylum and refugee process.

However, the new act does not include McMahon s recommendation that asylumseekers, once certain conditions have been met, should be allowed to work.

The group recommended that once the new single application procedure was working efficiently, an asylum seeker who had been waiting nine months for a first-instance decision and has co-operated with the protection process, should be allowed to seek work. Ireland opted out of a reworked EU council directive in 2013 allowing asylumseekers to work one year after making their application for asylum.

In response to a parliamentary question from Independent TD Catherine Connolly, Mr Stanton said: There is an effective visa and immigration system in place for those who wish to lawfully migrate to the State for employment purposes. The key concern is that the asylum process and the wider immigration system would be undermined by giving people who secure entry to the State, on foot of claims to asylum yet to be determined, the same access to employment as legal immigrants who follow the lawful route to employment.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 12, 2017 Sunday 2:43 PM GMT 


Home Office 'turned down offer to foster 100 refugee children a week';
TACT Care chief executive Andy Elvin says care agencies had offered to supplement councils' capacities


BYLINE: Jon Sharman


SECTION: UK POLITICS; Version:2


LENGTH: 599 words


The UK could have taken in up to 100 child refugees a week through fostering agencies were it not for a Home Office veto, a charity leader has claimed.

Andy Elvin, the chief executive of TACT Care, the UK's largest fostering and adoption charity, said officials met with foster agencies as long ago as September 2015 about the potential for carers to provide extra capacity on top of local councils'offers of spaces for refugees.

The Home Office never took up the deal, Mr Elvin said. He told  

The

Observer

: "We were talking to the Department for Education, because they were having meetings with the Home Office, and saying we can offer this fostering capacity now if you want it. They were aware of this throughout, but never engaged with it."

The Home Office responded that housing the children was the responsibility of local authorities, Mr Elvin said. He has previously described the Government'sclaim that councils lack the capacity to house the 3,000 child refugees designated by the Dubs amendment-

its reason for backing down on implementing the plan-as a "lie".

He added that between September 2015 and June 2016, "we offered on numerous occasions to the Home Office the option of contracting directly with us and other fostering agencies, rather than going straight to local authorities".

Mr Elvin told

The Observer

the UK could accept at least 1,200 refugees a year into foster care, or 100 children a week in an emergency."The idea was that Dubs would be done over a number of years,"he said.

A Home Office spokesman said the number of children the Government had decided to accept under the Dubs scheme was "in line with available local authority capacity".

The spokesmanadded: "The UK's doors will remain open to all those who need our protection and we are very grateful for the support that local authorities and the public provide to the asylum system."

Tory MP says people should 'stop being so sentimental' about child refugees

Earlier this week the Government defeated an attempt to force ministers to take up offers from local councils eager to accept more unaccompanied children fleeing conflicts.

Ministers have been accused of ignoring evidence that town halls are willing to make thousands more places available, with the right funding.

But the bid, led by Conservative backbencher Heidi Allen, to force ministers to properly audit local council capacity, was lost by 287 votes to 267.

Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said in February thatmore than 900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were transferred to the UK from Europe in total last year.

This included more than 750 from France as part of Britain's support for the clearance of the Calais jungle.

Read more

A robot lawyer is helping refugees

Germany spent 'more than (EURO)20bn' on refugees in 2016

Refugees applying to live in UK face being sent home after five years

More than 200 of those children met the criteria for the Dubs route, while the remainder were transferred under an accelerated process based on, but operated outside of, the Dublin Regulation covering family reunion cases.

MPs have warned that closing off resettlement for unaccompanied child refugees under the Dubs schemewill increase the risk of trafficking and exploitation.

In an urgent report, the Home Affairs Select Committee, which is chaired by Yvette Cooper, has said the Government's evidence that re-housing child refugees would act as a"pull"factor to desperate parents and to people smugglers stands in contrast to the beliefs of charities.

It also claimed some local councils have said they have capacity for as many as 4,000 more lone children.


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The Guardian(London)


June 12, 2017 Monday 3:30 AM GMT 


UN official says Australia responsible for 'inhuman' treatment of asylum seekers;
Special rapporteur says offshore detention system tarnishing Australia's human rights record and 'cannot be salvaged'


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 1095 words


Australia has " clear and undeniable" responsibility for the physical and psychological damage its illegal offshore detention regime has caused to asylum seekers and refugees, a senior UN official has said.

The UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, has reported on his visit to Australia last November, saying Australia's strong human rights record was tarnished by an abusive offshore detention system that "cannot be salvaged".

Crépeau said the regime of offshore detention - on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and the Pacific state of Nauru - was unjustifiably punitive and unlawful "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment". He said Australia knew the dangerous and helpless situations on Manus and Nauru were damaging those held there. 

Related: Manus Island shooting left nine injured, immigration department admits

"Mental health issues are rife, with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression being the most common ailments," Crépeau wrote. "Many refugees and asylum seekers are on a constant diet of sleeping tablets and antidepressants. Children also show signs of mental distress ... many adolescents are themselves already on antidepressants."

Crépeau found that refugees and asylum seekers do not feel safe on Nauru. "Many of the migrants reported incidents of verbal abuse, physical attack or theft from the local community ... Despite complaints to the local police, no one is being held accountable and, due to their lack of trust in the local police, incidents most often go unreported.

"The special rapporteur heard accounts of the rape and sexual abuse of female asylum seekers and refugees by security guards, by service providers, by refugees and asylum seekers or by Nauruans, and there is not a proper and independent investigation mechanism in place, making the life of women in the regional processing centres unbearable. Women and girls fear reporting such incidents to the Nauruan police and, even when they are reported, investigation or appropriate sanctions rarely ensue."

Australia has consistently maintained that conditions in offshore detention centres are the responsibility of the governments on whose territory the centres are housed. Crépeau said full responsibility for the centres lies with Australia, which pays for, manages and has ultimate authority over the centres.

"Considering that this situation is purposely engineered by Australian authorities ... and considering that Australian authorities have been alerted to such serious issues by numerous reports from international organisations such as the United Nations and civil society organisations, Australia's responsibility for the physical and psychological damage suffered by these asylum seekers and refugees is clear and undeniable."

Crépeau found the fact and nature of Australia's offshore detention regime was illegal under international law.

"The forced offshore confinement (although not necessarily detention any more) in which asylum seekers and refugees are maintained constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment according to international human rights law standards. Australia would vehemently protest if such treatment were inflicted by any other state on Australian citizens, and in particular on Australian children."

In his 21-page report, the special rapporteur also condemned the Australian government's use of the term "illegal" to describe a person who sought asylum. He said the characterisation of people as illegal, when they had not committed a crime, was used to justify indefinite detention.

"While migrants who arrive in countries of destination without documents may be in an 'irregular' or 'undocumented' or 'unauthorised' situation, they have not committed a criminal act," he said. "A human being cannot be intrinsically 'illegal' and naming anyone as such dehumanises that person. The conceptualisation of irregular migrants as 'illegals' has undoubtedly played into the criminalisation of migrants and thus into the use of immigration detention."

Related: Scale of surveillance in Manus Island detention centre laid bare

Crépeau visited Australia before the announcement of the nascent US deal, under which America would agree to resettle refugees from Australia's offshore detention centres. No refugees have yet been resettled under the deal but interviews and assessments are continuing on both islands.

The special rapporteur was complimentary about Australia's "exemplary" formal refugee resettlement program, singling out the country's additional intake of 12,000 refugees from the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts as a valuable and positive contribution to the global issue of forced displacement.

"The migration policies of Australia give many positive examples, such as the country's resettlement program, granting humanitarian protection to a high number of refugees with the objective of increasing the number of visas issued to 18,750 per year from 2018, and assisting them in their integration process with generous and well thought through integration programs."

The Australian government, in a formal response, rejected Crépeau's report, saying the special rapporteur had made errors in his findings.

Government officials told Crépeau that Australia's strong border protection policies enabled it to make a "generous contribution to global humanitarian resettlement efforts".

"Australia takes its international obligations seriously. Immigration detention is an important part of strong border control and supports Australia's migration system.

"It assists in managing potential risks to the Australian community - including national security, health and character risks - and ensures people are available for removal."

Related: Internment is so hot right now, but it's nothing new in Australia | Jeff Sparrow

Australia said health services in offshore detention were provided by private contractors to the Australian government and had been improved.

"The department has implemented an enhanced mental health strategy in Nauru to improve the provision of mental health services to transferees and refugees."

The office of the special rapporteur on human rights of migrants is a subsidiary body of the human rights council, the powerful UN body to which Australia is seeking election at the end of this year.

Australia is competing against Spain and France for two positions on the council. Elections will take place in November.

While Australia is regarded as a solid chance to be elected to the council, the damaging report from the special rapporteur will weaken its position.


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The Times (London)


April 4, 2017 Tuesday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


English football again leads way with campaign celebrating refugees' impact;
Henry Winter Chief Football Writer


BYLINE: Henry Winter


SECTION: SPORT; OPINION COLUMNS; Pg. 65


LENGTH: 804 words


Eighty years ago this month, Junkers 52 bombers under the command of the lieutenant colonel Wolfram von Richthofen screamed into action, diving down on the Basque town of Guernica, dropping their murderous payload. As innocent civilians, young and old, fled the raging fires and falling masonry, they were strafed by Heinkel 51s. It was a massacre.

Guernica was a Spanish Civil War atrocity immortalised in Pablo Picasso's eponymous mural and, through a quirk of history, had a direct influence on English football which will be marked by Premier League, EFL and Women's Super League clubs on April 22 and 23. 

The destruction of Guernica was powerfully chronicled by George Steer in the April 26 1937 edition of The Times. "When I entered Guernica after midnight houses were crashing on either side, and it was utterly impossible even for firemen to enter the centre of the town," Steer wrote.

Picasso was so moved by Steer's reportage that he began work on "Guernica", an abstract masterpiece in the eyes of many or "a hodgepodge of body parts that any four-yearold could have painted" according to the German guide when it was first shown in Paris. When asked by a Gestapo officer, "Did you do that?" Picasso is famously reported to have replied: "No, you did".

German involvement in the attack was revealed by Steer, who searched through the debris and discovered remnants of shells with German insignia. The British Government finally promised shelter to 3,840 young refugees from the Basque region. The children boarded SS Habana, endured seasickness on top of their homesickness as the boat, designed for 800, climbed the waves, and negotiated the troughs through the choppy Bay of Biscay, before reaching the safe haven of Southampton.

The refugees were embraced by locals, given food, water, accommodation and hope. Football too. Five of the refugees went on to play in English football. Emilio Aldecoa became a striker with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City, before returning to Spain and winning the league with Barcelona, and then coming back to be assistant manager of Birmingham City. One marvellous picture owned by the Rex syndicate shows Aldecoa shovelling snow from the St Andrew's pitch.

Raimundo Pérez Lezama was a goalkeeper with Southampton, who shipped five against Arsenal before returning to Spain and winning two titles with Athletic Bilbao. Both Lezama and Aldecoa went on to represent Spain.

Sabino Barinaga became a forward with Southampton's reserves, scoring 62 goals in 13 appearances, before heading back to Spain and starring for Real Madrid, scoring the first goal at the Bernabeu in December 1947. José Gallego played briefly on the wing for Brentford, Southampton and Colchester United while his brother Antonio kept goal for Norwich City.

English clubs will now host a range of initiatives and events as part of Amnesty International's "Football Welcomes" campaign to mark the first influx of refugees into the English game. Simon Rix of the Kaiser Chiefs is closely involved through the band's association as Amnesty International ambassadors.

"I just want people to realise that refugees are people who could be a hero of yours as a footballer," he says. "These guys made a great impact, and it's the anniversary of that, and also [a celebration of] some players playing now."

It will be an emotive moment for the likes of Saido Berahino, of Stoke City, who escaped the conflict in Burundi that claimed the life of his father. Another refugee from Burundi, Gaël Bigirimana, scored Coventry's first goal in the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley on Sunday. Fabrice Muamba, the former Bolton Wanderers midfielder, came to this country as an asylum seeker from Zaire.

"People feel footballers are millionaires who live on islands, on boats or in mansions, but some of them have been through terrible times," Rix says. "This campaign is a really good way to bring it into focus for everybody."

In an age when asylum seekers are attacked in Croydon bus stops, "Football Welcomes" is particularly timely. "I've been to a few refugee centres, and heard their stories," Rix says. "There was a lady at a refugee centre in Islington who was a medical pharmacologist, highly trained, and she left Congo fearing for her life. All she wants to do is put something back and be a member of the community here.

"Clubs are meant to be the heart of the community, and some are more than others. Leicester City got asked by the police to set up activities for refugees with people from the community, playing football together, because there was friction, problems with violence." Leicester confirmed yesterday that the project helping refugees is under way, another example of football leading the way. And it's a two-way process. From Guernica onwards, refugees have certainly contributed to English football.


LOAD-DATE: April 4, 2017


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GRAPHIC: Bigirimana, who moved to England in 2004 as a refugee from Burundi, holds the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley after scoring Coventry City's first in the 2-1 victory against Oxford United on Sunday


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Daily Mirror


February 10, 2017 Friday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


There is no excuse for turning our backs on these kids.. we're their last hope;
Britain's shame as Tories close door on child refugees


BYLINE: LORD ALF DUBS


SECTION: FEATURES; OPINION COLUMN; Pg. 8


LENGTH: 886 words


JUST before the Second World War Britain took 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. I was one.

My mother wasn't Jewish but my father was and he left us as soon as the Germans occupied Prague in March 1939. He had previously said to his cousins that if the Nazis came he would be gone. They said they'd take their chance and in 1942 the Gestapo came for them.

I was only six-years-old but I remember having to tear out a picture of President Benes and replace it with one of Adolf Hitler in my school books, and there were lots of German soldiers everywhere. My mother, refused permission to leave, put me on the Kindertransport, trains which brought thousands of children to Britain. 

She put sandwiches in a box for me but I didn't touch them the whole journey. I think I was a bit traumatised by the whole thing. I can still see my mother on the platform surrounded by other anxious parents. In the background, a German soldier with a swastika.

It was an interminable journey and I remember the hard wooden seats. We got to the Dutch border and the older ones cheered as were out of the reach of the Nazis.

I was lucky my father met me at Liverpool Street Station - but most children didn't have anyone to meet them. Britain took in and saved those 10,000 children when other countries weren't doing anything.

Last year I fought hard for Britain to be a saviour again, with today's young people who need our help.

This time it is not victims of the Nazis but Syrian children who are alone and vulnerable after fleeing their devastating conflict.

Despite resistance from then Premier David Cameron, the Government agreed to work with charities and welcome unaccompanied Syrian child refugees to Britain, if they had arrived in Europe before a March deadline.

After months of campaigning and setbacks, we believed an amendment to the Immigration Act 2016 would mean as many as 3,000 youngsters could be given a new, safe life here in Britain.

Suddenly they have said the door is shut.

Yesterday I asked in the House of Lords why the Government has decided to close the scheme for unaccompanied child refugees. Their response was that the scheme hasn't closed - they have taken in 200 children and plan to take another 150. But once the 350 are here the scheme is effectively finished - and 350 is a drop in the ocean compared to the need. There were 90,000 refugee children stuck in Europe without parents.

I had an easy journey in the sense that I was on a train. Most of the child refugees in 2017 have had desperate journeys. Many of them have seen their parents killed by bombs in Damascus or Aleppo and experienced a terrifying time. It has taken months for them to cross Europe, only to get to somewhere like Calais or the dreadful Greek refugee camps. I was in Greece about a month ago and the conditions are appalling. It is bitterly cold and there are about 2,000 unaccompanied children there.

Their one hope was a new life in Britain, a country that always had, until now, a worldwide reputation for welcoming those most in need.

So I am utterly dismayed the Government is now refusing to help, to save any more child refugees.

It is bitterly disappointing for the children that might have come here, and a breach of the Government's original undertaking.

As the legislation was discussed last year, Theresa May, then Home Secretary, said we propose to accept your amendment. Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said: "We have a moral duty to help", and told me we intend to accept the letter and spirit of your amendment.

Well, they haven't done that.

Instead they have backed off in a big way and turned their backs on these vulnerable children.

There was nothing in the amendment about a limit on numbers, there was no time limit.

Now Home Secretary Amber Rudd has suggested the scheme "acts as a pull" for children to head here and encourages traffickers.

I disagree it increases the risk of trafficking. Firstly, the Government themselves said the cut-off point would be March last year so any child refugees accepted on the scheme had to be in Europe by then.

Also, if we don't give them a legal route to Britain, traffickers will have even more business to find illegal routes for child refugees. Trafficking is a vile crime, but I don't think you will stamp it out by encouraging people to come here illegally.

Saying local authorities simply cannot take any more child refugees is weak too. I know of local authorities willing to be considered for more refugees. And if the Government had difficulty in finding enough quickly, they should have said they will keep the scheme going at the speed authorities can have children fostered or cared for.

The Government is using this as a very shabby excuse.

Obviously other countries should do something as well, but we have an amendment, we have it in the Immigration Act, and we should step up to the mark. The Government is going against parliamentary, and public, opinion. It is also going against Britain's humanitarian traditions.

It is very sad the Government has decided to do this. And I really don't understand why.

So I hope the combination of parliamentary pressure, political pressure and public opinion will make the Government reconsider.

mirrorfeatures@mirror.co.uk

Their one hope was Britain which used to help the most in need


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Lichfield Mercury Series


March 2, 2017 Thursday


Bishop witnesses church's loving approach to refugees


BYLINE: Andy Kerr; News Reporter


SECTION: NEWS:PEOPLE; Pg. 13


LENGTH: 532 words


THE BISHOP of Lichfield "witnessed the grassroots relationships Christians are building with refugees" on a recent visit to the Diocese's partner church in Germany.

The Right Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave and his wife Dr Julia Ipgrave spent five days as a guest of the Nordkirche Lutheran Church in northern Germany, visiting all three episcopal areas and sharing in worship, prayer and discussion with bishops, clergy and lay people. 

During that time they went to Café Mittenmang in Hamburg, a meeting place for local people and refugees, and visited church projects in Bad Doberan, Rostock and Schwerin that works with refugees and the jobless.

Bishop Michael said: "We were so thankful for the warm welcome we received from so many people on our first visit to Nordkirche.

"We are part of a worldwide family of Christians and the challenges we face are shared in different ways across the world.

"To see churches responding in practical and loving ways to the needs of refugees and others in their communities was heart-warming and encouraging.

"I pray that churches in the Midlands, in Germany and elsewhere will continue to choose to respond with practical love, care and attention to all who are in need."

Bishop Michael has previously spoken of his belief in the importance of building bridges between churches in the Midlands and the rest of Europe in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Revd Christa Hunzinger, who hosted the trip, said: "I am very thankful for Bishop Michael's interest in Nordkirche and the work we are doing, especially with refugees. 

"I totally agree with him that our relations have become even more important after the Referendum for Brexit.

"We have to work for and live in unity, not hate and separation.

"I felt especially touched in his interest for our work with refugees. 

"Together we had beautiful and very moving encounters in the Café Mittenmang where every Saturday afternoon people from the parish and refugees come together, chat, learn German, eat and play."

A three-day celebration of the Diocese of Lichfield's partnership with Nordkirche took place in November.

The Anticipating Advent event saw members of the German church travel to Shrewsbury for a conference and special church services with local Christians.

A short video can be viewed at youtu.be/dPDIDsDxy5E

At the time, Bishop Michael said: "Links such as this, particularly with continental Europe, and in this case Germany, become all the more important because Brexit was not a vote to leave Europe; it was specifically about the European Union.

"We are part of Europe and this is a way of building those links even more strongly and making the bridges even firmer that bind us in friendship with other European Christians.

"Many people feel disenfranchised or culturally excluded - either their communities are forgotten or changing so fast that they are disorientated.

"We need to find ways to be a sign of hope in despairing places, to ensure our churches are places where people do not feel excluded or belittled."

Bishop Michael is co-chair of the Anglican-Lutheran Society and will, with others, take part in a pilgrimage to Germany in July to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.


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thetimes.co.uk


February 21, 2017 Tuesday 12:01 AM GMT 


Row threatens Ireland's refugee target


BYLINE: Catherine Sanz


SECTION: IRELAND; Version:1


LENGTH: 688 words


It is unlikely that Ireland will meet its pledge to receive 4,000 refugees by the end of this year, according to an official with the United Nations refugee agency in Dublin.

The UNHCR calculates that just over 2,000 people will be accommodated if the monthly targets are met on time for the duration of the year.

The figure of 4,000 is broken down as 2,622 from Italy or Greece, 1,040 from Lebanon, 200 unaccompanied minors from Calais, and 138 from a location yet to be decided. 

To date, 840 refugees have arrived in Ireland, and the government hopes to accommodate 80 people a month from Greece for the remainder of the year. It has also pledged to receive an additional 520 refugees from Lebanon and 200 unaccompanied minors from Calais by the end of the year.

The main reason for the low number is a disagreement between Italian authorities and the Irish justice department over whether security checks may be conducted by a foreign police force.

Ireland will not accept any refugees without first securing garda clearance for them to travel and Italy will not allow security assessments on Italian soil by the gardaí.

More than 3,000 people have been relocated from Italy to 17 EU member states since 2015.

The justice department has maintained that it is still committed to meeting the target, which Ireland voluntarily opted into.

Jody Clarke, external relations associate with the UNHCR, said that while Ireland's pledge was welcomed, the progress had been disappointing.

"Although the numbers being resettled from Lebanon have increased significantly, the slow progress of the relocation scheme from Greece and Italy means that Ireland is unlikely to meet its pledge to receive 4,000 refugees by the end of 2017," he said.

Mr Clarke said that there were ways that Ireland could make up the numbers, which were discussed at a meeting of the Irish refugee protection programme taskforce this month. The meeting was attended by officials from the Department of Justice, gardaí and various refugee networks. The main solution the UNHCR suggested was for Ireland to resolve the security dispute with Italy.

"There is some hope that a way can be found around this diplomatic impasse in the coming weeks," he said.

Approximately 123,000 asylum applications were lodged in Italy last year, a significant increase from the 80,000 submitted in 2015.

Representatives of Frontex, the European border agency, and Europol, the EU law enforcement agency, have co-operated to ensure that all asylum seekers in Italy are identified, fingerprinted and processed.

Germany, France, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland and Switzerland are fully engaged in relocation from Italy.

"Increased relocation from Italy is critical, especially for the many unaccompanied and separated children there, as the increasing number of people staying in Italy compared to previous years has impacted on both the asylum and the reception systems in the country," he said.

The other solutions proposed by the UNHCR include humanitarian visa schemes, private sponsorship for communities which want to take refugees, and study visas.

Ireland may be subject to infringement proceedings if the relocation targets, which cover asylum seekers in Italy, are not met by the end of this year.

"The commission expects member states to meet the solidarity commitments they have undertaken under EU law," Ruth Deasy, spokeswoman for the European Commission, said. "Our aim is to convince all parties of the necessity and common interest in working together, not to force them."

Catherine Connolly, independent TD for Galway West, said that she did not have any confidence that the government would meet the target without sustained pressure from outside groups. "We made a pledge to accept a certain number of people fleeing terrible situations and we owe it to ourselves to stand by that pledge," she said.

A spokesman for the justice department said that the government was still committed to delivering on its pledge to accept 4,000 refugees and asylum seekers. "This is despite the difficulties that have been encountered so far, which have been outside of Ireland's control," he said.


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Express Online


February 1, 2017 Wednesday 9:33 AM GMT 


Angela Merkel leads EU REBELLION and blasts Trump's travel ban with WARNING to President


BYLINE: Rebecca Perring


LENGTH: 603 words


ANGELA Merkel has lashed out at Donald Trump's travel ban as she leads a European Union rebellion against the US President's controversial policy.

GETTY

Angela Merkel has once again condemned Trump's travel ban

The German Chancellor has given a thinly veiled threat of legal action against the new President of the United States, revealing she is "striving for legal clarity".

She cosied up to Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven with the pair lambasting the President Trump for his policy to ban refugees from seven Muslim countries from entering America.  

Angela Merkel, whose ill-fated refugee policy saw 1.1million migrants enter Germany, and led to the Chancellor toughening her stance on refugees in a bid to cling on to leadership, said: "I have made it clear once again that the fight against terrorism does not justify a general advance against certain countries and people with a certain belief."

Related articles Brexit boost - pound set for first January rise in FIVE years Mum who strangled baby to death after giving birth WALKS FREE

GETTY

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sweden's Prime minister Stefan Lofven

Mr Lofven echoed the criticism, saying: "I value Angela Merkel, her leadership and friendship. We share fundamental values, and Germany plays a major role in the growth of the EU and the world."

"It is no secret that we now face major challenges. It is deeply regrettable that the USA has suspended all travel from citizens of seven countries. That's anything but good. 

"The EU plays an important role for values and human rights."

He added: "We need a more harmonised legislation and for all countries in the EU to share the responsibility of taking in refugees."

The leaders' attempted show of unity comes as uncertainty hangs over Brussels after Donald Trump ramped up his rhetoric against NATO, describing it as "obsolete", while getting closer to Vladimir Putin.

GETTY

The leader's sought to reaffirm their commitment to the EU

The beleaguered German leader spoke just days after her spokesman released a statement attacking Mr Trump. 

Outrage has erupted over the American president's temporary executive order to halt refugees from seven Muslim countries, with thousands of protestors taking to the street across the world. 

Donald Trump's executive order has banned migrants from seven Muslim countries including Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq from coming to the US for the next 90 days. 

The executive order also indefinitely blocks Syrian refugees from entering and lowers migrant numbers entering the US to 50,000 refugees. 

Mrs Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert said: "The Chancellor regrets the US government's entry ban against refugees and citizens of certain countries.

GETTY

Angela Merkel was in Sweden on Tuesday

She is convinced that even the necessary, resolute fight against terrorism doesn't justify putting people of a particular origin or particular faith under general suspicion.

"The Geneva Refugee Convention requires the international community to take in refugees from war on humanitarian grounds. All signatory states are expected to do so. The Chancellor explained this policy to the US President in their call yesterday.

"The German government will now examine what consequences the measure of the US government will have for German citizens with double citizenship and will represent their interests, if necessary, before our American partners."

Related articles Juncker takes aim at Brexit and Trump as he reveals plan to SAVE EU Travel chaos after TWO men hit by trains - severe delays Donald Trump vows to accelerate cures for terminal illness


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The Welwyn & Hatfield Times


March 29, 2017 Wednesday


BYLINE: PR Script Managers


SECTION: ROP


LENGTH: 534 words


A team of more than 20 volunteers has been assembled to help members of a Syrian refugee family soon to arrive in Welwyn Garden City.

A team of more than 20 volunteers has been assembled to help members of a Syrian refugee family soon to arrive in WGC.
 



A meeting last night organised by the Herts Welcomes Syrian Families group was attended by more than 70 people from across the county, and many from Welwyn Hatfield volunteered to help a family due to arrive in May.

Vicky Woodcaft of Handside Lane, WGC: said: "There are lots of people who want to help. At the moment there are 21 refugee families across the county. St Albans already has five. Most are from a refugee camp in Lebanon.

"These are people whose lives have been turned upside down through no fault of their own. They have been bombed out of their homes, and some have had family members killed."

A family of five will be accommodated in a WGC house that is currently being adapted, as one of them has a disability.

The Refugee Council will manage their initial integration into the community, but the volunteers will provide further help, for example by managing collections of donated goods.

Although the house will have basic furnishings, the volunteers will try help the family by collecting children's toys and gardening equipment.

Vicky, who helped organise the meeting in the Quaker Meeting House, Handside Lane, said: "The families want to grow their own food. It is also very important to them is to get their children back into education, and to resume their careers if they can."

The location of the house, provided by an undisclosed organisation, will not be published to protect the family, but Vicky knows it is in WGC and it has a garden.

A meeting last night organised by the Herts Welcomes Syrian Families group was attended by more than 70 people from across the county, and many from Welwyn Hatfield volunteered to help a family due to arrive in May.

Vicky Woodcaft of Handside Lane, Welwyn Garden City: said: "There are lots of people who want to help. At the moment there are 21 refugee families across the county. St Albans already has five. Most are from a refugee camp in Lebanon.

"These are people whose lives have been turned upside down through no fault of their own. They have been bombed out of their homes, and some have had family members killed."

A family of five will be accommodated in a Welwyn Garden City house that is currently being adapted, as one of them has a disability.

The Refugee Council will manage their initial integration into the community, but the volunteers will provide further help, for example by managing collections of donated goods.

Although the house will have basic furnishings, the volunteers will try help the family by collecting children's toys and gardening equipment.

Vicky, who helped organise the meeting in the Quaker Meeting House, Handside Lane, said: "The families want to grow their own food. It is also very important to them is to get their children back into education, and to resume their careers if they can."

The location of the Welwyn Garden City house, provided by an undisclosed organisation, will not be published to protect the family, but Vicky knows it has a garden.


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China Daily European Edition


June 14, 2017 Wednesday


Terrorism could raise anti-refugee sentiments


BYLINE: Zhu Sumei


SECTION: OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS


LENGTH: 673 words


After eight people were killed and 48 injured in the London Bridge terrorist attack on June 3, a man attacked three policemen in Paris on June 6, shouting, "This is for Syria". Both attacks took place within two weeks of the May 22 terrorist attack in Manchester, in which 22 people were killed and more than 50 injured. And on June 8, some unidentified people threw explosives at the United States embassy in Ukraine, which, despite not causing any casualties, reflected the serious terrorist threats countries face today.

The fight against terrorism is becoming tougher. The recent attacks show the anti-terrorism mechanisms of European countries still have many loopholes. Before the Manchester attack, some US officials had warned the United Kingdom that Salman Abedi, the man suspected of carrying it out, received training from Islamic State terrorists, but the British authorities failed to properly monitor his activities. 

Since the terrorist attacks come at a time when the IS group has suffered one blow after another in Syria and Iraq, they should be a warning to all that the IS group can orchestrate more attacks elsewhere. Besides, to spread fear and cover its defeats in Iraq and Syria, the IS group might launch more attacks in the coming months.

As the main destination of the refugees fleeing the Middle East, Europe is also the main target of such attacks, and European governments need to be prepared for that. As such, the attacks are likely to influence European countries' domestic as well foreign policies. For example, in the UK, some people have been asking the British government to review its roles in the civil wars in Libya and Syria. The British government's failure to prevent terrorist attacks might also have influenced voters in the UK election last week, which saw the ruling Conservative Party losing absolute majority in parliament.

Increasingly, European countries have been taking stricter border control and other security measures. After a man from Uzbekistan drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm on April 7, killing four people and wounding 15, many European countries strengthened border control; the Manchester, London and Paris attacks have made them impose even stricter control.

Worse, the attacks will further divide European public opinions on granting asylum to refugees, especially from the Middle East. When the photograph of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who (along with his mother and elder brother) drowned in the waters off Turkey while fleeing the civil war in Syria, was flashed across newspapers and news channels in Europe in September 2015, all Europeans were united in grief and seemed in favor of allowing refugees into their countries.

But as more terrorists in the garb of refugees seem to have entered Europe, many Europeans are losing sympathy for the refugees. On social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, for example, those sympathizing with the refugees find themselves cornered by the comments of many of their compatriots, who want safety and security for themselves and their families. If terrorist attacks continue, anti-refugee sentiments could rise in Europe, which in turn would prompt their governments to further strengthen border control.

The recent terrorist attacks may have taken place in Europe, but they are a lesson for China, too, especially as it pushes ahead with the Belt and Road Initiative. Two Chinese citizens, who were abducted by the Islamic State group from Quetta in Pakistan's southwest province of Balochistan at the end of May, have reportedly been executed.

Such incidents should prompt China to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation with other countries and regions, so as to better protect all Chinese citizens, whether at home or abroad, from terrorist attacks. Security is the prerequisite of prosperity. That's something we should never forget while pushing forward the Belt and Road Initiative.

The author is a professor at the International Politics Department of the University of International Relations in Beijing.


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standard.co.uk


April 26, 2017 Wednesday 8:05 PM GMT 


Labour peer Lord Dubs slams 'disgusting' admin error that 'delayed child refugees' coming to UK


BYLINE: Chloe Chaplain


SECTION: POLITICS; Version:1


LENGTH: 587 words


A Labour peer has condemned the Tories for a "shocking and disgusting" administrative error that delayed refugee children from being welcomed into the UK.

Lord Dubs, who came to the UK as a refugee from the Nazis, accused the Government of under-counting the number of places available for unaccompanied child refugees in an administrative error.

And he said that, as a result, 130 refugee children had to wait longer before coming into the country. 

Ministers faced a furious backlash in February when they announced 350 minors would arrive from Europe through the Dubs scheme - well below the 3,000 campaigners had called for.

Delayed: A child refugee carries a sign during a demonstration (AFP/Getty Images)

The Home Office has now announced the total number of children resettled under the programme - officially Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 - will rise to 480.

Lord Dubs told the Press Association: "I'm delighted for the sake of those 130 children but shocked and disgusted that the Government has made such a mess of this.

"I don't like the way they're doing it just before the election - the Government should be ashamed of themselves."

Petition: Lord Dubs delivering petition calling on government to reconsider its decision to end the 'Dubs' scheme (February 2017) (Getty Images)

The figure is being increased after officials discovered scores of offers to provide support for youngsters from local councils were mistakenly missed off.

Lord Dubs added: "We have told them for a long time that local authorities have offered more places, they have known for ages and have only announced it now, right before the election.

"They have been told by us and by local authorities that some are willing to offer more places and they wouldn't listen."

Child refugee: Adapting to UK life after Calais Jungle camp

When he announced the 350 figure in February, Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said it was reached following consultation with local authorities.

Read more

Refugee saved from Calais tells of love of Britain despite hate crimes

In a new statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, he said: "The Government has very recently become aware that, due to an administrative error as part of collating the figures, one region pledged 130 places which were not accounted for in setting the specified number.

"In order to ensure the specified number of children to be transferred is a true reflection of the responses to that consultation, I am today announcing that, in accordance with Section 67 of the Immigration Act, the Government is increasing the specified number from 350 to 480.

"As outlined in my original statement, the specified number includes over 200 children already transferred from France as part of the Calais camp clearance."

He added the number does not include children transferred to the UK under the Dublin Regulation covering family reunion cases.

The minister said the Government remains fully committed to the implementation of its commitment under Section 67, which was introduced following a campaign spearheaded by Lord Dubs.

Read more

Home Office could review asylum claims from child refugees

Mr Goodwill also stressed no eligible child has been refused transfer to the UK as a result of the error.

Home Office officials have met with counterparts in Europe to plan future transfers.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of the charity Refugee Action, described the increase as a "welcome but modest step forward".

He added: "There are far more vulnerable refugee children in Europe in need of protection."


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The Times Higher Education Supplement


June 1, 2017


Online higher education 'unappealing' for Syrians


SECTION: NEWS No. 2308


LENGTH: 557 words



HIGHLIGHT: Refugee study reveals concerns over medium preferred by many Western universities. Ellie Bothwell writes


Online learning is the least desirable model of higher education for Syrian refugees, despite it being the medium adopted by many Western universities in their aid efforts, according to a study from the British Council. 

Research based on interviews and focus groups with 178 young Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey found that the majority thought online lecturers were less competent than those teaching face-to-face, were wary of the lack of accreditation of some online programmes, and felt self-motivation, time management and maintaining momentum would be difficult "in the chaos of camp life".

They also believed online education to be an inappropriate medium for degree-level programmes and for studying technical or applied subjects, such as science, engineering and medicine, which "required the mastery of technical equipment and lab work", according to the study, which was launched at the British Council's Going Global conference.

Meanwhile, several respondents based at refugee camps in Jordan said that the campus experience "gave them life skills they would miss out on if studying alone with a computer". Female students, in particular, said going to campus "gave them reprieve from the psychological imprisonment of camp life".

When asked to rank educational opportunities in terms of desirability, the vast majority of students in the three countries chose university first, followed by technical and vocational education and training colleges second and online study third, according to the report.

Online learning has been considered a cheap, effective and immediate way to educate refugees, who may find it difficult to access a university campus. In 2014, University of the People, an online institution, teamed up with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to admit refugees and asylum seekers. The Open University, in partnership with the British Council, also offers online courses for Syrian refugees who have temporarily settled in Jordan and Lebanon.

Researcher Kathleen Fincham (pictured), senior lecturer in education and social science at St Mary's University, Twickenham, said at Going Global that many of the participants had not experienced online learning themselves and therefore their responses demonstrated perceived drawbacks of the model.

However, of those who had undertaken online learning, many cited poor course administration and technical issues as problems, she said.

"One of the issues was that the online higher education they had experienced was not interactive - it was essentially reading articles on the internet, which is just poor pedagogical practice," she said.

Dr Fincham said that some of the participants acknowledged that online learning could be an effective model for vulnerable groups such as "people who were housebound, women with small children, people with disabilities and those in full-time work".

When asked what universities could do to address the perceptions of online education among refugees, Dr Fincham said: "You have to educate young people and their families about the potential of online learning. And you have to provide good online learning."

The report adds that it is important for institutions to examine whether online programmes to date have "adequately catered for the special needs of refugees".

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com


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The Guardian(London)


March 7, 2017 Tuesday 1:19 AM GMT 


Manus Island refugee arrested for alleged sexual assault of 10-year-old girl;
Pakistani refugee, 28, charged as Manus MP calls for all Australian immigration detainees to be removed from the island


BYLINE: Ben Doherty and Helen Davidson


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 515 words


A refugee on Manus Island has been arrested for the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Lorengau.

The acting provincial police commander, Senior Inspector David Yapu, confirmed that a 28-year-old Pakistani refugee was arrested Monday. 

He is alleged to have lured the girl to the Kohai Lodge in Lorengau township, where he is accused of assaulting her.

The man has been charged with four counts of sexual penetration of a child. He is expected to appear in Lorengau court Wednesday afternoon.

The girl was taken to Lorengau general hospital for medical examination, Yapu told the Guardian, where she reported the alleged attack.

"The victim is now with her parents after providing her statements to police on the incident."

Manus MP and government minister Ronnie Knight told the Guardian: "The sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl must be condemned and the blame must be awarded to the Australian authorities and contractors who have failed miserably to secure such sick people. We will make sure that they [Australian authorities] also will be the target of a class action lawsuit for crimes against Manus people.

"I demand they secure these people and remove them forthwith before our local people massacre them."

Knight has consistently warned that brooding tensions between Manusians and the refugee population could escalate to serious violence.

Monday's alleged assault is the second reported incident of sexual assault in Lorengau town involving the transferred population of refugees and asylum seekers.

In January an asylum seeker was arrested and charged for the assault of a year 9 student at the Harbourside Hotel. He has been bailed to appear in court at a later date.

The arrest of a refugee forcibly transferred to Manus Island comes at a delicate time for the PNG and Australian governments.

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, is reportedly scheduled to meet her PNG counterpart Rimbink Pato at Madang on PNG's north coast this week, as part of the 25th PNG-Australia Ministerial Forum. PNG's lingering dismay over the Manus Island detention centre has been previously raised in this meeting.

Related: Peter Dutton backtracks on suggestion of people-swap refugee deal with US

The PNG government is pushing Australia to close the detention centre as quickly as possible and remove the men held there from Manus Island. The PNG supreme court ruled the detention centre 'illegal and unconstitutional' more than 10 months ago, and the government has openly stated the camp is a problem and wants it shuttered.

Ferrovial, owner of Broadspectrum, the private contractor employed to operate the offshore detention regime, is refusing to run the camps beyond the end of its current contract in October.

Officials from the United States are on the island for preliminary interviews regarding resettlement of refugees in America, but there is significant uncertainty that that deal will go ahead. The US could take zero, or a handful of refugees from Manus, and still be upholding the deal it struck with Australia, which obliges it only to consider refugees for resettlement.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:38 PM GMT 


'Heartbroken' Malala and outraged Jewish groups attack Trump over immigration crackdown


BYLINE: KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 872 words



Malala Yousafzai, the 19-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is the latest to join a chorus of critics against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, with Jewish groups also raising outcry over the timing of the move. 

'I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and fathers fleeing violence and war,' Yousafzai said in a statement on Friday.

Yousafzai, a British resident, drew global acclaim as a human rights activist when, in Pakistan at age 15, she was shot in the head by Taliban assassins over her advocacy for women's education.

'I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants,' the young activist said of Trump's recent immigration order, which bans refugee entries to the U.S. for the next four months.

 Scroll down for video

'In this time of uncertainty and unrest around the world, I ask President Trump not to turn his back on the world's most defenseless children and families,' the statement said.

A wide range of Jewish groups were also outspoken about the immigration order, which went into effect on Friday, the anniversary of the Allied liberation of the Nazi's Auschwitz concentration camp. 

The date is memorialized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

'It is a terrible irony that today, the same day on which this order is to be signed, is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day,' the liberal Jewish group J Street said in a statement.   

'The fact that President Trump's order appears designed to specifically limit the entry of Muslims evokes horrible memories among American Jews of the shameful period leading up to World War Two, when the United States failed to provide a safe haven for the vast majority of Jews in Europe trying to escape Nazi persecution,' the statement said. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice.  

'History will look back on this order as a sad moment in American history - the time when the president turned his back on people fleeing for their lives,' Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said in a statement.

'Yes, we need strict screening but our current system is sufficient in keeping America safe,' Greenblatt added.

The president addressed the topic of the Holocaust in a statement acknowledging Holocaust remembrance day.

'It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror,' he said Friday. 

'In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good.' 

Trump's immigration order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

Visa, green card holders and refugees had already been blocked from entering the United States just hours after Trump signed an executive order introducing his tough new immigration bans.

Seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were stopped from boarding a flight from Cairo on Saturday, while at least two Iraqis were detained after flying in to New York's JFK airport on Friday night. 

Two Iraqi refugees, including one who had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years, were detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday, The New York Times  reports.

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them. 

One was released on Saturday. 


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 11:39 PM GMT 


Sir Mo Farah faces being BANNED from returning to his family in America under Donald Trump's immigration crackdown on people from his Somali homeland 


BYLINE: REBECCA TAYLOR FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1210 words



Olympic hero Sir Mo Farah could be banned from returning to his home in America after Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The sprinter, who lives with his family in Oregon, is believed to be training in Ethiopia at the moment, and recently tweeted from there. 

President Trump's immigration crackdown prevents refugees coming into the USA from seven Muslim majority countries for 90 days and those from Syria indefinitely.

The ban also affects those with dual nationality, who were born in one of the seven countries, returning to the USA if they are currently away.  

In a statement that the State Department is due to release, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the 90-day visa moratorium extends beyond just citizens of Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen.

It also applies to people who originally hail from those countries but are traveling on a passport issued by any other nation, the statement notes. 

Sir Mo is originally from Somalia and moved to the UK when he was eight-years-old. 

Because he was born in one of the countries President Trump has targeted, travelling on a British passport will not help him return home. 

The statement means Iraqis seeking to enter the U.S. on a British passport, for instance, will be barred, according to a U.S. official. British citizens don't normally require a visa to enter the U.S.

'Travelers who have nationality or dual nationality of one of these countries will not be permitted for 90 days to enter the United States or be issued an immigrant or non-immigrant visa,' the statement said. 

'Those nationals or dual nationals holding valid immigrant or non-immigrant visas will not be permitted to enter the United States during this period. Visa interviews will generally not be scheduled for nationals of these countries during this period.'

A Conservative MP also tweeted to say he is banned from the USA under President Trump's controversial ruling.

Nadhim Zahawi represents Stratford-on-Avon but both he and his wife were born in Iraq.

He tweeted: 'I'm a British citizen & so proud to have been welcomed to this country. Sad to hear ill [sic] be banned from the USA based on my country of birth.'

He added: 'Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat.

'A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen! Sad day for the USA.' 

The ban has also already affected an Iranian director nominated for an Oscar, who now won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his movie The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards, because he was born in Iran. 

An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans.

Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.

'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted.

Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Seven refugees bound for the U.S. were stopped from boarding a plane in Cairo on Saturday and 12 migrants were detained in New York overnight because they arrived just after the executive order was signed. 

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, one of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours at New York, was released on Saturday afternoon.

The 53-year-old had arrived in America on a flight from Istanbul on Friday night, just hours after Trump implemented the immigration ban.

He had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America.

The dual-citizenship ban doesn't apply to U.S. citizens who are also citizens of the seven nations singled out by Mr. Trump.

The State Department statement also said such restrictions don't apply to people from those countries traveling on diplomatic visas.

The official said that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. consulate in Erbil have stopped accepting visa applications from Iraqi nationals until further notice, except for certain diplomatic exceptions.

The urgent steps come as State Department officials try to sort out how to implement Mr. Trump's broadly-worded policy executive order. Officials said they received little information about the ban before it took effect from the Trump team. 

One described how a draft of the order was brought in unofficially to the State Department earlier this week to review before it took effect. 

At a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Theresa May repeatedly refused to criticise President Trump's executive order.

At a news conference in Ankara, Prime Minister May said: 'The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees.

'And our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria.'

However just yards away from her, Prime Minister Yildirim was putting the boot in, saying building walls would not help the refugee crisis.

He said: 'We cannot solve this refugee problem by putting up walls.

'We opened our doors, and if they come again, we would take them again.

'Regional problems cannot be solved by sweeping them under the carpet.'

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: 'British citizens banned from the US and our government has nothing to say? Disgrace.' 

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.


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The Guardian(London)


February 2, 2017 Thursday 11:20 PM GMT 


'Big personality': Australian PM puts brave face on phone call with Trump;
Turnbull says commitment to resettle refugees has been 'confirmed several times' as US and Australian commentators fear for future of alliance


BYLINE: Paul Karp in Canberra


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS


LENGTH: 1019 words


The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has described Donald Trump as a "very big personality" after a bruising public spat over the US-Australia refuge resettlement deal.

It comes after further statements from Trump and the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, overnight that Trump is "unbelievably disappointed" with the deal and is entitled to review it and question why the Obama administration had agreed to it. But Spicer and Trump did not close the door on the deal.

On Friday morning Australian time, Turnbull told 2SM Radio in Sydney that as prime minister he had to stand his ground and make his case for Australian interests, but he had done so privately. 

Related: White House suggests US may still accept Australia refugees despite clash

Turnbull again denied that Trump had hung up on him during the pair's 25-minute weekend phone call, saying it was a "frank discussion" that had ended "courteously".

Asked if Trump was a brash character, Turnbull replied: "I'll leave others to comment on him but he's clearly a very big personality."

Turnbull said Trump had given him a commitment to the refugee resettlement deal which had been "confirmed several times since".

On Thursday the deal for the US to take up to 1,250 refugees from Australia's offshore detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru was thrown into doubt by Trump labelling it a "dumb deal" and questioning why the US was taking "thousands of illegal immigrants".

Spicer said the refugees would be subject to an "extreme vetting" process to ensure they came with "peaceful intentions" and did not pose a threat to US security, indicating the resettlement deal had not been scrapped despite the president's outrage. Australian officials remain concerned the deal could be scrapped entirely or made effectively meaningless by the extreme vetting process.

Australian government ministers have tried to frame the spat as the prime minister standing up to Trump in a show of strength.

The defence industry minister, Christopher Pyne, told Channel Nine the refugee resettlement agreement was "not a deal Donald Trump would have done if he had been president at the time and he obviously doesn't like the deal".

Related: Turnbull tries out shirtfronting Trump as a way to handle the bully-in-chief | Katharine Murphy

But he added a "deal is a deal" and Turnbull had stood up for Australia's interests in ensuring the US follows through on its commitment.

Experts in US-Australian relations have warned Trump's concern over the refugee resettlement deal may lead to fewer refugees reaching the US, increased demands from Trump and a decline in the US-Australia alliance.

The response in the US to Trump's handling of the refugee deal focused on the wisdom of picking fights with a staunch US ally.

Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, tweeted:

I made a Top 100 Possible Trump Administration Foreign Crises list & I gotta admit "Rupturing US-Australia Relations" was NOT on there.- Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 2, 2017

Another Democrat, congressman Ted Leiu from California, wrote:

As Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee-and as an American-I find this unhinged behavior by @POTUS to PM Turnbull embarrassing & shocking https://t.co/TY3VrrZ9qZ - Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 2, 2017

Dear Australia: The majority of Americans who don't support Trump want to say we are sorry. We will make it up to you in 4 years or less. https://t.co/K4FZvTkc80 - Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 2, 2017

Other commentators shared their surprise:

Amazing. We could invade literally any country in the world tomorrow and the Aussies would be good for two brigades. No questions asked. https://t.co/pVnENVPfrt - James Joyner (@DrJJoyner) February 2, 2017

Australia is one of our closest allies and a member of the Five Eyes surveillance community. Gotta wonder what the other three are thinking.- Eric Geller (@ericgeller) February 2, 2017

United States Studies Centre senior fellow at the University of Sydney, Tom Switzer, told ABC News Breakfast the emphasis on "extreme vetting" may indicate a "good chunk" of the 1,250 refugees may not resettle in the US.

Switzer said Trump took a "transactional" approach, suggesting he may ask for more from the Turnbull government in return for sticking with the resettlement deal.

"This controversy, although it might be resolved for now, may be a harbinger for the next four years," he warned. "One thing that distinguishes Donald Trump from his post-world war II predecessors is that he places little faith in the US alliance system."

Related: A handy guide for Malcolm Turnbull on dealing with Donald Trump | Dominic Knight

Republican speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, sought to reassure Australia it should not be worried about its relationship with the US. "I know your country well, I've met with your leaders continuously over the last number of years," he said.

"So no, Australia is a very important essential ally, [and] it is going to continue to be [one]."

Senior Republican John McCain called the Australian ambassador to reaffirm the alliance. "This in my view was an unnecessary and frankly harmful open dispute over an issue which is not nearly as important as the US-Australian cooperation and working together," he said.

But in Australia some used the Trump anger at the deal to question why Australia didn't resettle it's own refugees:

Here's a crazy idea, why doesn't Australia take the refugees- Chris Crouch (@thecrouchpotato) February 2, 2017

The Australian govt is very publicly learning what happens when you demonise refugees. Unfortunately again it'll be the refugees who suffer.- Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 2, 2017

Spicer attempted to smooth over reports in the Washington Post that the phone call between Trump and Turnbull had been "the worst" of a round Trump had made, describing it as "cordial".

Minority leader of the house, Nancy Pelosi, said the US-Australian relationship was strong and she would also contact the ambassador to express support.

"I'm hoping that the later characterisations of the call are really what stands between our two countries," she said.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:23 PM GMT 


'It's not a Muslim ban': Donald Trump defends his extreme vetting order as refugees, students and even legal residents are stopped from boarding flights or left stranded in airports across the US 


BYLINE: CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 2166 words



Donald Trump on Saturday defended his tough new immigration bans, which prompted outrage as migrants were barred from entering the United States, including families of refugees, legal permanent residents and Ivy League students.

The president denied that his executive order, which bars refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US, was a Muslim ban. 

He maintained that the ban was 'working very nicely' while chaos broke out in airports as migrants were stopped and some non-American citizens realized they were now barred from the country where they were studying or had lived, perhaps for years.

Trump's comments came as seven refugees bound for the US were stopped from boarding a plane in Cairo on Saturday and 12 migrants were detained in New York overnight because they arrived just after the executive order was signed. Additional reports of dozens of people being stopped from entering the US or booted off airplanes have been pouring in.

Scroll down for video 

'It's not a Muslim ban, but we are totally prepared,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Saturday afternoon, according to The Hill. 

'It's working out very nicely. You see it in the airports, you see it all over. It's working out very nicely and we are going to have a very, very strict ban and we are going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years.'

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4:30 pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

In addition to Iran, the other countries on Trump's blacklist are Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Reports of people being detained were coming from all around the United States on Saturday.

'They're literally pouring in by the minute,' director of the International Refugee Assistance Project Becca Heller told the New York Times.

One Yale student said he would be unable to attend the prestigious Ivy League university. Another student from the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology said he was barred from boarding a plane.

A Stanford University student, a Sudanese national and legal permanent resident with a green card, was held for eight hours at JFK before being able to return to California.

An Iranian scientist was meant to fly to Boston to study cardiovascular medicine at Harvard but has now had his visa suspended indefinitely.  

'This outstanding young scientist has enormous potential to make contributions that will improve our understanding of heart disease, and he has already been thoroughly vetted,' Professor Thomas Michel, who was going to supervise the student, told The New York Times.

Two families of six from Syria were affected. One was supposed to relocate to Cleveland, Ohio, after having to flee their home in 2014. But their trip has now been canceled.

Another family of six from the war-torn country was detained at Philadelphia International Airport Saturday morning even though they had required legal documents and approved green cards and visas.

Plane passengers were turned away in Dubai and Istanbul, including at least one family who got ejected from a flight.

Four legal permanent residents with green cards coming home to Atlanta from Iran were detained, an attorney told WSBTV reporter Matt Johnson.

The fallout from Trump's immigration crackdown grew on Saturday. The visa ban sparked fear for some refugees who were already on their way to the US when the order came into effect and were detained on arrival.

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country. Twelve refugees were held in New York City's JFK on Friday night.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, one of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours at New York, was released on Saturday afternoon.

The 53-year-old had arrived in America on a flight from Istanbul on Friday night, just hours after Trump implemented the immigration ban. 

He had worked for the US government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America.

Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release, as a crowd of supporters cheered him on.

'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside the airport.

'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom... America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.'

Asked what he thought of Trump he said: 'I don't know. He's a president, I'm a normal person.'

He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America. 

Lawyers for Darweesh and another Iraqi Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, who is still detained at JFK, filed a lawsuit on Saturday morning in a bid to have them released.

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them on Friday night and took their passports when they landed in New York.

Alshawi - who was approved for a visa on January 11 - was flying to America to join his wife and son in Texas.   

WHO EXACTLY IS BANNED FROM THE U.S? 

Any non-U.S. citizen from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen is now barred from entering the United States.

That covers legal permanent residents - green card holders - and visa-holders from those seven countries who were out of the United States after Friday, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the temporary ban. They cannot return to the U.S. for 90 days.

There's an exemption for immigrants and legal permanent residents whose entry is in the U.S. national interest, but it's unclear how that exemption will be applied.

Visa and green card holders already in the U.S. will be allowed to stay.

Customs and Border Protection is notifying airlines about passengers whose visas have been canceled or legal residents scheduled to fly back to the U.S. Airlines are being told to keep them off those flights.

Source: Associated Press 

Eleven other refugees are still being held at JFK airport. Protesters gathered outside the airport on Saturday in anger over those being held in detention. 

Cairo airport officials said seven US-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the UN refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport.

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice.

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

Iran's foreign ministry suggested the country would limit issuing visas to American tourists in retaliation for Trump's suspension of immigration and visas.

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

The official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday that said Iran will resort to 'counteraction' to Trump's executive order.

'Iran, to defend the dignity of the great Iranian nation, will implement the principle of reciprocity until the removal of the insulting restriction against Iranian nationals,' the statement read.

'It will apply corresponding legal, consular and political actions.'

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1979 when militants stormed the U.S. embassy. 

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said. 

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order,  Bloomberg reports. 

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

Trump's order declares that US policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

Also affected by the order is an Oscar-nominated Iranian director, who won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony due to the new immigration bans.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his movie The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards.

His native Iran, which is where The Salesman was filmed, is one of seven countries listed in Trump's executive order that has placed a 90-day pause on visas and immigration to the US. 

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted on Saturday morning that Farhadi would be banned from attending the Oscars in what has become yet another fallout from Trump's immigration bans.

'Iran's Asghar Farhadi won't be let into the US to attend Oscar's. He's nominated for best foreign language film... #MuslimBan,' he wrote.

An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans. 

Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.

'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted. 

Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation.


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


January 14, 2017 Saturday 2:17 PM GMT 


Refugee crisis: More than 500 migrants rescued in single day in Mediterranean Sea as several drown;
Rescuers find two people crushed in overcrowded dinghy, while four more drown off Spain


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE


LENGTH: 958 words


More than 500 migrants have been rescued in a single day in the Mediterranean Sea as the refugee crisis shows little sign of slowing.

Two people were found dead at the bottom of one of the four boats saved and four other migrants were found drowned off the coast of Spain, bringing the number of asylum seekers killed attempting sea journeys to Europe so far this yearto at least 17.

The Italian coastguard said more than550 asylum seekers were rescued on Friday by two of its vessels, a navy ship, a fishing boat, merchant ship and humanitarian vessel. 

Women being rescued by the Aquarius humanitarian ship from a refugee boat in the Mediterranean Sea on 13 January (AP)

Footage captured by a coastguard's helmet camera showed men and women clambering from a dinghy onto a speedboat, with several falling into the water.

The man jumped into the sea to save several struggling migrants as they clung onto the side of the boat to stay afloat, dragging them to safety.

Read more

Hungarian camerawoman sentenced for kicking and tripping up refugees

Child refugee dies of heart attack in French accommodation centre

Refugees freezing to death in extreme conditions across Europe

SOS Mediterranée, which operates the

Aquarius

rescue ship alongside Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said it recovered two dead bodies from the bottom of an overcrowded inflatable boat.

Aid workers believe they were crushed beneath the 191 otherpeople crammed on board the vessel, launched by smugglers in Libya.

Survivors told MSF panic had broken out as they departed from Libya "after shooting started off the coastline". It was unclear who may have opened fire or why.

One of those rescued later had to be evacuated from the ship by helicopter because of a medical emergency as it sailed back to the Italian mainland on Saturday.

Ed Taylor, MSF's project co-ordinator on the

Aquarius

, said the crisis that saw more than 360,000 refugees arrive by sea in Europe last year was not stopping.

He said the sea conditions were making crossings ever more treacherous in the winter, with wind, waves and large swells combining with temperatures cold enough to induce hypothermia.

"People are still making the crossings and we should be focusing on why they are taking this risk in the winter," Mr Taylor told

The Independent.

"No one gets in these boats without taking serious consideration of the risk they're taking.

"It's not just the danger of the boats being so insecure and flimsy, it's now the waves and the cold as well."

Several refugees have died of hypothermia at sea, while at least four more have died on the European mainland in extreme weather conditions in recent weeks.

The bodies of four migrants were found on the Spanish coast on Saturday after apparently attempting to cross from Morocco.

Migrants being rescued rescued by members of

Proactiva

Open Arms NGO in the Mediterranean Sea on 12 January (AP)

Spanish police said two bodies were found in the sea off Algeciras and two others were floating in nearby Tarifa.

More than 5,000 refugees were drowned, suffocated or crushed while attempting to cross the Mediterranean and Aegean seas in 2016, making it the deadliest year on record.

Read more

The stories of the refugees rescued from the Mediterranean

Many deaths are thought to go unrecorded, with bodies either disappearing or washing up on the shores of Libya, where authorities do not routinely release casualty figures. Some boats are sighted by Italian authorities but disappear before they can be reached by rescue ships.

The Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis (Medmig) project partly blamed Britain and EU nations for rocketing death rates, concluding that the refusal to open up legal routes for those seeking safety in Europe has increased demand for people smuggling on ever more dangerous routes.

Operations to combat the thriving trade havedriven the use of smaller and less seaworthy boats to cross the Mediterranean, which are harder to spot by ships patrolling as part of the EU's Operation Sophia and authorities in North Africa.

Poorly made dinghies are now being loaded with more than 150 people a time, creating the risk of sinkings, capsizings or the inflatable bursting under the strain, as well as deadly fuel spills.

Since the EU-Turkey deal was implemented in March to deter crossings over the Aegean Sea, the longer and more dangerous journey over the Central Mediterranean has become the dominant sea route to Europe.

The vast majority of those arriving in Italy are African, from countries including Nigeria, Eritrea and Guinea, while most of the much lower number of asylum seekers reaching Greek islands are Syrian, Afghan or Iraqi.

The United Nations says there hasbeen an "unprecedented" rise in the number of children and teenagers risking the journey alone.

Almost 26,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in Italy by sea last year, more than double the number in 2015, mainly from Eritrea, Egypt, the Gambia and Nigeria.

While most of the children were boys aged 15 to 17 years, Unicef said younger children and girls have also been among the new arrivals.

Several girls reported being forced into prostitution in Libya as a means to "pay off" the cost their boat journey, while many of the boys arriving had been forced into manual labour.

Lucio Melandri, Unicef's senior emergency manager, said the findings indicated a "serious and growing problem" that Europe is failing to address.

"These figures indicate an alarming trend of an increasing number of highly vulnerable children risking their lives to get to Europe," he added.

"Current systems in place are failing to protect these children who find themselves alone in a totally unfamiliar environment. Because they are on the move, a coordinated European response is needed to keep them safe."


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The Independent (United Kingdom)


March 21, 2017 Tuesday 6:47 PM GMT 


Woman gives birth to baby girl on refugee rescue boat as charities brace for spring surge;
Baby Mercy among 3,000 people rescuedover weekend amid warnings for record year


BYLINE: Lizzie Dearden


SECTION: EUROPE; Version:2


LENGTH: 1225 words


A baby has been born on a ship rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean Sea as charities brace to savethousands of migrants launched by smugglers from Libya with the start of spring.

The infant's mother was in labour for eight hours on the

Aquarius

before she wasborn at a healthy 8oz and taken to hospital after docking in Sicily.

The little girl, described as "perfect" by ecstatic SOS Mediterranee and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) crew members, was named Mercy.

Read more 

Forced to go home, Afghan refugees find they have 'no future' anywhere

More than 40 refugees killed in helicopter attack on boat

Turkey threatens to end EU refugee deal

"It wasn't an easy birth," said midwife Elizabeth Ramlow, following the surprisedelivery on Tuesday morning.

"I don't know how her mother was able step on that raft in Libya...she must have felt she had no choice."

Mercy was one of 947 men, women and children to be taken to safety after a hectic weekend that saw more than 3,000 people rescued on one day between Libya and Italy.

Taiwo

and her baby Mercy, who was born on the Aquarius refugee rescue ship on 21 March (MSF)

Aid agencies fear the mass launches seen on Sunday are a sign of things to come as seas calm with the arrival of spring.

Conor Kenny, an MSF doctor on the Aquarius, said rescuers feared the quality of unseaworthy dinghies used by Libyan smugglers were deteriorating, placing those crammed on board in even greater danger.

He told

The Independent

the ship would head back to the rescue zone as soon as possible, having received reports of at least 40 people killed when a boat capsized over the weekend.

"The figures have gone up since January and I see no reason why they shouldn't continue to rise," Dr Kenny added.

"Within the medical clinic the patients have been victims of torture or sexual violence while in Libya - in detention, by their employers or police or armed gangs as well."

Dr Kenny said refugees rescued over the weekend were suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and chemical burns from leaked fuel, as well as fractures and sprains sustained in beatings in Libya.

"You simply don't know what you'll find with each boat," he added, saying approaching rescuers routinely check for refugees suffocated at the bottom of boats.

"It's a fine line between life and death in the Mediterranean.

"Weeks ago we came across boat at 2am with people suffering from hypothermia. Had they been found a few hours later, at least eight of them would have died."

Almost 20,000 migrants have arrived by sea in Italy so far this year, with a record of 587 dying in the attempt, according to figures compiled by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Read more

European policy 'driving child refugees to attempt suicide'

The Central Mediterranean -now the deadliest crossing in the world - has become the main sea route to Europe following moves to prevent crossings over the Aegean Sea with the EU-Turkey deal.

MSF is deploying a second vessel to the search and rescue zone lying to the north of Libya's volatile coast, with the ship expected to start operations on Wednesday morning.

The Prudence will be able to transport 600 people with emergency capacity for another 400, as well as 13 MSF staff members manning an emergency department, clinic, pharmacy and morgue.

Save the Children is also launching a rescue boat in April, while numerous smaller charities from across Europe are working alongside naval forces and cargo ships enlisted for missions by the coordination centre in Rome.

Stephane Jaquemet, the UNHCR's regional representative for southern Europe, said unpredictable weather conditions can see several days without any arrivals followed by the launch of hundreds of boats.

The Prudence, a new MSF rescue ship starting rescue missions in the Central Mediterranean (MSF)

"What is certain is that there has been an increase for the first three months of this year," he told

The Independent

, saying more people have already arrived than were seen by the end of March last year.

"We are not talking about 2015 scenario like we had from Turkey to Greece, but we may have an increase in numbers, probably to a maximum of 250,000."

The arrivals are putting huge pressure on the Italian government, which is already housing around 176,000 migrants in reception facilities, while thousands more remain trapped in Greece, Serbia and across Europe.

Rising arrivals have alarmed EU leaders, sparking attempts to stem the flow by increasing cooperation with authorities in Libya, where 90 per cent of boats crossing the Central Mediterranean are launched.

But the country's fragile Government of National Accord is failing to regain territory controlled by warring factions including a powerful general backed by Russia, while armed gangs and smugglers have capitalised on widespread lawlessness to detain, extort, enslave and eventually export migrants for profit.

Interior ministers from Libya, Tunisia, Italy, Germany, Malta and other nations affected by the refugee crisis released a declaration to tackle the root causes of migration and combat smuggling on Monday.

Delegates agreed to work with Libya to better patrol its coasts, with the coastguard already undergoing training from Britain and other EU nations despite allegations of officials murdering and torturing refugees.

Marco Minniti, the Italian interior minister, said the plans would help "govern illegal migration", adding that the first 90 sailors were finishing up their seaboard training and Italy expected to deliver 10 patrol ships within months.

Desperate journeys: Rescued at sea, refugees detail abuse in Libya

The plans have raised alarm among human rights groups amid continued allegations of widespread abuses in Libya including rape, torture, kidnapping, forced labour and arbitrary detention in squalid camps.

Dr Kenny said one of the refugees rescued on Saturday had been on a boat caught and forced back to Libya by the coastguard two weeks ago, and was detained and beaten before managing to depart for a second time on Saturday.

"What these guys undergo when they are detained is brutal," he added. "That is really concerning."

Read more

Harrowing footage exposes 'inhuman' treatment of refugees in Libya

Mr Jaquemet said that current proposals would see new camps complying with international humanitarian standards erected in Libya, but such a benchmark could take a long time to realise.

"People who move to Libya with the hope of going to Europe are just a small proportion of the migrants trapped there," he added.

"There are a number of vital issues that need to be addressed regarding Libya."

The EU's migration official has warned member states against failing to host refugees and help alleviate the pressure on countries like Greece and Italy as the summer season looms.

"It is important for governments to understand that they should be part of it," Dimitris Avramopoulos told a news conference in Warsaw on Tuesday.

"If some of them do not comply ...the Commission has the power, the tools to convince these countries."

Fewer than 14,500 asylum seekers have been relocated from Greece and Italy under a two-year plan that was supposed to resettle 160,000 people elsewhere by September.

The vast majority of migrants arriving in Italy are from sub-Saharan African nations including Guinea, Nigeria and Gambia, and Bangladesh, while those reaching Greece are mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.


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mirror.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 2:10 PM GMT 


Muslim travellers turned away from US after Donald Trump's ban as Google 'recalls overseas staff';
The new US President last night said no visas would be issued to nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries including Syria, Iran and Iraq


BYLINE: By Anthony Bond


SECTION: NEWS,WORLD NEWS


LENGTH: 1444 words


Muslim travellers are reporting horror stories of being turned away from the US just hours after Donald Trump banned nationals from seven countries from entering America.

The new US President last night ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the US.

Trump also said no visas will be issued to nationals from seven mainly-Muslim nations of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.

The ban has sparked outrage among many international organisations and Americans.

Tech giant Google has reportedly told its overseas staff who could be affected by the rule change to return to the US. 

Muslim travellers have also started reporting problems getting into America.

Former journalist with the Los Angeles Times Mohammed Al Rawi said his 71-year-old father had been taken off a flight in Qatar and sent back to Iraq.

Donald Trump's Muslim ban 'means Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend ceremony'

Writing on Facebook, he said: "My 71 year old dad is in Qatar boarding LAX flight to come visit us and and he's being sent back to Iraq.

"Some US official told him that Trump canceled all visas."

Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were also reportedly barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York today, sources at Cairo airport said.

The passengers, arriving in transit to Cairo airport, were stopped and re-directed to flights headed for their home countries despite holding valid visas, the sources said.

Google has also reportedly recalled its staff who are travelling abroad back to America.

According to Bloomberg News, a memo to staff says more than 100 of its staff are affected.

The tech giant has told these members of staff to return to America, it has been reported.

Google has not yet commented on whether staff have been recalled.

An Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar may also be unable to attend the prestigious event.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for best foreign language film for his movie The Salesman, which is filmed in Iran.

Fans of the renowned filmmaker - who won an Oscar in 2011 for his film A Separation - now fear he will be unable to attend Hollywood's biggest night in February.

There are also reports of Syrians who have given up everything who are trapped at US airports and unable to enter the country.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said on Friday.

Donald Trump bans ALL refugees from entering the US for four months and Syrian refugees indefinitely

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

The United Nations has this morning condemned the ban while civil rights groups have said the order is harmful and discriminatory.

Join the conversation

Filmmaker Michael Moore said: "That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible."

Trump claimed the move would keep America safer, despite evidence which shows none of the countries on the list have been the source of terror attacks on US soil since 9/11.

Having given no notice of the ban, it caused chaos for thousands of Arab-American families who already had family members en route to visit.

There were reports of Syrian families who have spent up to two years being vetted for a visa left stranded at the airport having sold all their possessions.

That Trump chose Holocaust Memorial Day to make the announcement was all the more upsetting for many Americans.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

Republican senator Seth Moulton, an Iraq War veteran, said: "President Trump is leading our country out of fear instead of facts.

"His executive orders banning refugees and immigrants from some Muslim majority countries to the United States plays right into the hands of our enemies.

"ISIS has already used his statements to help recruit new suicide bombers, and you can bet Trump's policies will help inspire attacks against Americans both at home and abroad.

"His policies literally put our troops' live at risk - I've heard this loud and clear when I have visited them overseas."

"They also prove he has zero understanding of our country's values and no intention of defending out constitution.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and America is stronger when we welcome the refugees of our enemies.

"These policies do no not put America first.

"I am ashamed he is our president."

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement: "I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and father fleeing violence and war."

"I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants - the people who helped build your country, ready to work in exchange for a fair chance at a new life.

"I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination."

Civil rights groups have condemned the order as harmful and discriminatory.

"Extreme vetting is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims," American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

"Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions," Romero said.

Separately, Trump said that Syrian Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status, a policy that would likely be challenged on similar grounds.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, discussing the Syrian refugees.

Statistics provided by the Pew Research Center last October do not support Trump's argument.

Pew research found that 38,901 Muslim refugees entered the United States in fiscal year 2016 from all countries, almost the same number, 37,521, as Christian refugees.

Stephen Legomsky, a former Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said prioritising Christians could be unconstitutional.

"If they are thinking about an exception for Christians, in almost any other legal context discriminating in favor of one religion and against another religion could violate the constitution," he said.

But Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Trump's move would likely be constitutional because the president and Congress are allowed considerable deference when it comes to asylum decisions.

"It's a completely plausible prioritisation, to the extent this group is actually being persecuted," Spiro said.

The order temporarily suspends the United States' main refugee programme which helped around 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice last year.

It is expected to affect two programmes U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans.

Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded.

Campaigners said Britain should move to step up and help Syrian refugees in the wake of Trump's ban.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: " We're appalled that President Trump is closing the door to refugees fleeing terror.

"Restricting America's role in resettlement in the middle of the worst refugee crisis on record will have a huge impact on this vital global programme.

"Some of the world's most vulnerable people will be left struggling to survive in camps and on the borders of conflict zones.

"Thankfully we know Britain is better than this. Now is the time to step up and increase our commitment to protect those forced to flee war and persecution."

Have you been affected by Donald Trump's new rules for entering the US?

Call us free on 0800 282591 or email webnews@mirror.co.uk


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The Guardian(London)


March 17, 2017 Friday 12:00 AM GMT 


Refugees in Greece suffering after EU deal with Turkey, say NGOs;
Oxfam and other groups tell of more than 14,000 trapped in abysmal conditions through 'degrading asylum policies'


BYLINE: Helena Smith in Athens


SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 865 words


Greece is being used as a testing ground for degrading asylum policies that fall short of the democratic values Europe would normally uphold, say refugee groups marking the first anniversary of a deal designed to slow arrivals to the continent.

The accord struck last year between Turkey and the EU has been praised in some quarters for having slowed arrivals into Europe and reduced deaths in the Aegean sea. But basic human rights were lost in the process, the organisations claim. 

"Greece has become a testing ground for policies that are eroding international protection standards," said the Norwegian Refugee Council, International Rescue Committee and Oxfam, in a joint report based on extensive fieldwork on Aegean islands where more than 14,000 men, women and children are trapped in abysmal conditions. "Over the course of the year, there have been deaths, suicide attempts, people engaging in self harm, and children, women and men exposed to abuse and sexual violence."

Related: Forgotten inside Greece's notorious camp for child refugees

The withering assessment, coming almost 12 months to the day since the agreement was reached between Ankara and Brussels, is in stark contrast to the official view of an accord hailed by the EU, at the time, as a breakthrough in the migration crisis.

Agreed in exchange for (EURO)6bn in refugee aid to Ankara, it was seen as a vital step in resolving a crisis that at its height threatened to tear the bloc apart. Since its implementation, the number of refugees and migrants going to Europe via Turkey has dropped dramatically.

Islands such as Lesbos, which is near Turkey, are reporting 100 arrivals or fewer a day, while in 2015, when more than 1 million people streamed into Europe, it received 10,000 men, women and children over one weekend.

But NGOs say the reality on the ground is that the deal has prolonged and exacerbated human suffering. The report found that, incarcerated on Greek islands, asylum seekers had been made to live in substandard and overcrowded conditions for months on end. With limited access to fair and effective asylum procedures they were subject to "a convoluted and constantly changing process" that lacked oversights and checks and balances. Often legal experts were unable to keep track of a system that was impossible for people to navigate alone.

Related: Where did the money go? How Greece fumbled the refugee crisis

A separate report by Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières warned that there were worrying levels of mental health problems among migrants and refugees in the Greek camps. It said people including children as young as nine were cutting themselves, attempting suicide and using drugs to cope with the "endless misery".

Mental health was "rapidly deteriorating due to the conditions created as a result of this deal", Save the Children said.

About 14,115 people - almost double the official capacity - are living in these facilities on Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Leros, the five Aegean islands that have borne the brunt of the influx. Some 62,434 people are stranded across Greece, according to government figures released on Wednesday.

The report expressed the NGOs' fears that the deal would become a blueprint for crises elsewhere. "Beyond the deeply concerning situation in Greece, the EU is looking to replicate this model elsewhere, and, in so doing, risks setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of the world," said the report.

It added: "The EU has a proud history of commitment to international law and human rights, which has driven its policies for 60 years. Now is the time for Europe to show global leadership on migration by adopting policies that uphold these values, rather than triggering a race to the bottom."

Related: European countries have carried out 8% of promised refugee relocations

Dimitris Christopoulos, head of the International Federation for Human Rights, said: "Europe is clearly trying to externalise refugee and migrant management by creating buffer zones around the EU or at its periphery, as is the case with Greece. This is a political choice that not only undermines international refugee law and protection but ultimately the democratic values of Europe."

In a separate statement, Amnesty International said the deal had not only failed on its own terms but had left thousands of people exposed to squalid and unsafe conditions on Greek islands.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty's Europe director, said: "Today marks a dark day in the history of refugee protection - one in which Europe's leaders attempted to buy themselves out of their international obligations, heedless of the cost in human misery. A year ago, the Greek islands were transformed into de facto holding pens, as Europe's shores went from being sites of sanctuary into places of peril. One year on, thousands remain stranded in a dangerous, desperate and seemingly endless limbo."

The report by the NRC, IRC and Oxfam said that, instead of assessing asylum claims on merit, the entire system on the islands was aimed at returning refugees to Turkey even though Greek appeals courts had in many cases deemed Turkey an unsafe third country for summary returns.


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to 'ship the next Boston bombers' to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1187 words



Donald Trump reportedly slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation.   

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump terminated what was meant to be an hour-long phone call between the allied leaders in just 25 minutes.  

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.

President Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 genuine refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, telling Mr Turnbull 'I don't want these people'.

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement.

Sky News sources claim President Trump was 'yelling' at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation, which took place on Saturday afternoon Washington time, Sunday morning Australian time.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, President Trump ended the conversation.

'During call with Australian PM on refugees, Trump pulled phone away from ear and says he wants off call, which ends abruptly per source,' CNN reporter Jim Acosta tweeted.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Sky News reporter Laura Jayes said Australian government sources who took part in discussions after the call said Mr Turnbull viewed the president as a 'bully'. 

'What I derived from that was Malcolm Turnbull used this phone call to push back,' Ms Jayes said.

'He wasn't just sitting there being berated by Donald Trump, he talked about how important it was for (Trump) to honour the deal.'

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that President Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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MailOnline


April 17, 2017 Monday 10:04 PM GMT 


How a community changed by refugees came to embrace Trump


BYLINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: AP; Version:1


LENGTH: 1177 words


LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - Richard Rodrigue stood in the back of a banquet hall, watching his blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter mingle among her high school classmates. These teenagers speak dozens of languages, and hail from a dozen African nations.

They fled brutal civil war, famine, oppressive regimes to find themselves here, at a pre-prom fete in this once-dying New England mill town, revived by an influx of some 7,500 immigrants over the last 16 years. Rodrigue smiled and waved at his daughter, proud she is a part of it.

"It will help her in life," he said. "The world is not all white."

Rodrigue believes the refugees resuscitated his town - plugging the population drain that had threatened to cripple it, opening shops and restaurants in boarded-up storefronts. But he also agrees with Donald Trump that there should be no more of them, at least not now. 

His working-class community, built along the banks of the Androscoggin River in the whitest state in America, is a place that some point to as proof that refugee integration can work. And yet for the first time in 30 years, voters in Androscoggin County chose a Republican for president, endorsing Trump's nativist zeal against the very sort of immigrants who share their streets and their schools.

The mills that line the river sit mostly shuttered today, and a quarter of children grow up poor in the county of 107,000. So Trump's supporters here tie their embrace of his immigration clampdown to their economic anxieties.

"There's got to be a point in time when you have to say, 'Whoa, let's get the working people back up. Let's bring the money in. But they keep coming, keep coming," Rodrigue said. "I guess it just boils down to: What's enough?"

No one invited the Somali refugees to Lewiston. They fled bullets and warlords to eventually be chosen for resettlement in big American cities.

In early 2001, a few refugee families struggling to afford housing in Portland ventured 30 miles north and found a city in retreat. Empty downtown stores were ringed by sagging apartment buildings.

The refugees saw possibility in Lewiston's decay. Friends and families followed. The town morphed in a matter of months into a laboratory for what happens when culture suddenly shifts. Maine's population is 94 percent white, and its citizens were abruptly confronted with hundreds of black Muslims, barely able to speak English.

Ardo Mohamed fled Mogadishu in the 1990s, when militiamen burst into her home and started shooting. She watched her father die, as the rest of the family escaped into the woods. They wound up in refugee camps, separated for years, then finally Atlanta, then Lewiston in 2001.

"We wanted to be safe," said the mother of five, "just like you do."

When the refugees began arriving, Tabitha Beauchesne was a student at Lewiston High School. Her new classmates were poor, but Beauchesne was poor, too. It felt to her then, and it still feels to her now, that the refugees got more help than her family.

"They just seemed to take over," she said.

Beauchesne doesn't consider herself racist, though acknowledges that race and religion likely play a role in her sense that the refugees overwhelmed her community. She's now a stay-at-home mother of two, and she left Lewiston to move to another school district in the county because she believes immigrant students monopolize teachers' attention.

Once a Barack Obama supporter, Beauchesne turned to Trump - and she cheers his efforts to curb the flow of refugees into the U.S. She wants Trump to design a tax system that funnels less of her money to aiding those from other countries.

"I just don't like giving money away that's not benefiting me and, not to sound selfish, but then seeing it benefit other people," she said. "As a business owner, my husband wouldn't donate $500 to the Salvation Army if we couldn't afford it. Our country needs to do the same thing."

Taxpayers do help some of the immigrants, whose population exploded as Somali refugees gave way to those seeking asylum, from Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, a dozen nations in all. Still, many of the newcomers work, said Catherine Besteman, a professor of anthropology at Maine's Colby College.

Maine's immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa made $136.6 million in income in 2014, and paid $40 million in taxes, according to one report from a bipartisan think-tank. But Besteman said they work invisible jobs: they take out trash at hotels, do the laundry at the hospital. People don't see them working, so it's easy to assume they are living off handouts.

Republican leaders - from the president to the governor to the local GOP - have seized on the resentment that breeds. The county Republican party routinely rails against what it calls "the refugee racket," and complains that the school system is forced to accommodate 34 languages.

Lewiston School Superintendent Bill Webster acknowledges that does cost money. But he has a statistic he likes to share with critics.

An average of 78.3 percent of immigrant students graduate from his district within five years, compared to an average of 73.3 percent of native-born students. And now some of those immigrant kids are going off to college to get degrees, as teachers, doctors, engineers. Two years ago, immigrant children led the high school soccer team to win the state championship - a moment heralded as a triumph of cultural cooperation.

"If the immigrant population hadn't happened," Webster said, "Lewiston would be a community that was contracting, and potentially in a downward death spiral."

Yet many on the outskirts of Lewiston have quietly stewed over the change in their county - and Trump's "America First" message rings especially true with them.

Thirty miles up the highway, David Lovewell stood in the parking lot of the paper mill where he used to work, before it shed hundreds of jobs. Now he runs a logging company with his sons just outside the town of Livermore Falls. A few months ago, business got so bad he laid off eight employees.

He looked down at his sneakers, bought for $25 at Walmart. There used to be two shoe factories nearby.

Lovewell doesn't like to talk about immigration. He went on a cruise to Belize with his wife several years ago, and bought a carving from an old man whose hands were so worn from years of whittling they looked like leather. He remembers those hands still, and the man's dirt-floor shack with no doors and his skinny dog and the kids riding around on broken bicycles.

"I struggled with it, when he did the travel ban," Lovewell said of Trump. "At the same time, I'm seeing... people losing their jobs. Why are we so worried about immigrants coming into our country when we can't really take care of our own people?"

So Lovewell looks to Trump to strike a better balance - to build an economy where his sons don't have to battle to barely get by and, after that, design an immigration system that keeps America's promise of open arms.

"I guess it could sound like bigotry," he said. "But we're hurting. Americans are hurting."

___

AP data journalist Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this report.


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The Independent - Daily Edition


February 25, 2017 Saturday  
First Edition


Europol hails efforts to combat people smuggling amid record refugees deaths


BYLINE: LIZZIE DEARDEN


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 24


LENGTH: 876 words


A new report claiming European operations to combat people smuggling in the ongoing refugee crisis are a success has been lambasted by aid workers as more migrants die than ever before. Almost 14,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat in Europe in the first weeks of 2017, with at least 366 dying at sea and others freezing to death while stranded by border closures. But a report by EU-wide security agency Europol claimed a year of efforts by the new European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC) was seeing progress. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for migration, said the initiative was "successfully fighting, disrupting and apprehending criminal migrant smuggling networks".

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol said more than 90 per cent of migrants entering the EU have used smugglers. "These organised crime networks are taking mass profits from mass migration, and making migrant smuggling the fastest growing criminal sector," he added. "To tackle this, we have brought together some of the best investigators in Europe in the EMSC." 

Almost 17,500 suspected migrant smugglers were identified in 2016 according to Europol's report, which said that 1,150 social media accounts linked to the trade had been flagged alongside 12,000 "operational messages", as well as 2,500 forged or stolen documents. More than 500 "vessels of interest" are also being monitored at sea, although no mention was made of "capture and destroy" missions announced by the EU in 2015 taking place.

Humanitarian organisations working on rescue operations in the increasingly deadly Mediterranean and providing aid at transit points across Europe say they have not seen any benefit from anti-smuggling operations. Aurelie Ponthieu, a humanitarian specialist on displacement at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), told The Independent that refugees were being driven into criminals' hands by the lack of safe and legal routes to Europe. "What are the indicators of success?" she asked. "Looking at the number of smugglers caught is not the indicator we would use when we continue to see people dying - there have never been so many. One death is one too many and a policy that contributes to death and violence cannot be labelled as a success."

More than 5,000 refugees died crossing the Mediterranean in 2016 and the grim record is likely to be surpassed this year, with other migrants dying of hypothermia in extreme winter weather across Europe and being shot in the Balkans. Ms Ponthieu said border closures along the land route from Greece to Hungary previously used by refugees to reach western Europe had forced asylum seekers to resort to smugglers when they had previously passed through openly. "The consequences of these journeys are dire and continue deteriorating," she said. "If one route closes, another one opens and usually it's more dangerous???people are escaping conditions that are so terrible they will do anything."

Research by Save the Children found that the EU-Turkey deal had dramatically reduced the number of refugees journeying over the Aegean Sea to Greece but had given people smugglers "a firmer grip on a hugely profitable business". Caroline Anning, a spokesperson for the charity, said Europe's priority should be providing safe and legal routes such as the Dubs amendment to resettle child refugees, which has been scrapped by the UK. "Unless vulnerable refugees have safe and legal routes to access asylum, people smugglers will always be in business on the refugee route," she added.

Europol's report alluded to the knock-on effect of the crackdowns, noting that boat crossings from North Africa to Europe increased after the EU-Turkey agreement. "Facilitation by train and by air was increasingly reported; this displacement is believed to be the consequence of the additional controls implemented on land and sea routes," the report said, adding that the supply of false documents was also rising.

A damning report by the Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis found European policy has so far been an "absolute failure", with refugees continuing to use an array of the almost 100 different and constantly evolving routes to reach Europe. Researchers found that smugglers' efforts to evade detection by the EUs Operation Sophia was partly responsible for rocketing death rates worsened by a switch from wooden fishing boats and commercial vessels to unseaworthy dinghies that frequently sink and capsize. British Government efforts have focused on funding increased provision for refugees in countries outside the EU, including Turkey and Libya, to discourage them risking sea journeys. On Thursday, the Royal Navy ship HMS Echo was among the vessels rescuing more than 1,100 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea in one of the busiest days yet in 2017.

Conservative MP Peter Bone, the former chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, argued that improved provision to keep asylum seekers in Italy and Greece would discourage treacherous crossings. "It's making these evil bastards [smugglers] a lot of money and killing people," he told The Independent. "What you've got to do is stop the crossings by reducing the demand and keep people closer to home. These are real people, this shouldn't be happening."


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MailOnline


April 14, 2017 Friday 12:38 PM GMT 


Refugees fear for their lives as PNG military personnel 'fire dozens of shots at Manus Island detention centre after argument over soccer match'


BYLINE: HANNAH MOORE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA


SECTION: NEWS; Version:4


LENGTH: 678 words



Members of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force have reportedly fired dozens of shots into the Manus Island detention centre, leaving asylum seekers 'extremely frightened'. 

Military officers stationed at the Lombrum Naval Base, next to the detention centre, began shooting into the complex between 6.30pm and 7pm while asylum seekers hid in their rooms, Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition says.

Security workers and some Australian staff are understood to have fled the compound, and boarded a ship.   

Unconfirmed reports suggest a fight broke out between asylum seekers and military officers on the soccer field, and when the refugees returned to the compound, their opponents followed to continue the argument.

Mr Rintoul says the attackers were originally armed with rocks and knives, but were not able to gain entry to the compound and used guns instead.

While it is believed the shooting has stopped for now, Mr Rintoul says those living in the compound are frightened that escalating tensions could lead to another incident similar to that which resulted in the death of asylum seeker Reza Berati in 2014.

'People are extremely frightened, because this raises the spectre of the kind of attack in 2014 that resulted in the death of Reza Berrati,' Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition told Daily Mail Australia.

'It reveals how vulnerable people on Manus are and how tenuous the situation is - even after three and a half years it's an extremely volatile situation.'

Manus Island MP Ron Knight claims the incident began when a defence officer was 'assaulted by refugees'. 

He says soldiers retaliated, but were outnumbered, causing a 'riot'. He further claimed the gunshots were 'warning shots' to say police were attending. 

'Yes people warning shots. If they were shooting at them they would be dead,' he said on Twitter. 

Behrouz Boochani, a journalist living on Manus, claims PNG defence personnel have since broken into some of the rooms, and described the situation as critical.

He tweeted about the situation, saying there have been no injuries, and reported Australian security officers still in the compound were also 'extremely scared'.

At about 10.30pm, Mr Behrouz reported through his Twitter account that the Australian staff had recently also evacuated the centre at the direction of their bosses.

He wrote: 'The officers closed the gates and left the centre. We are alone, nobody here to protect refugees'.

'The refugees are scared of another attack on the centre. The Australian officers did not tell us, why did they leave the centre?'  

Kon Karapanagiotidis of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre said the incident showed why asylum seekers on Manus Island should be brought to Australia.

'The latest crisis on Manus shows how dangerous, unstable and untenable leaving refugees on Manus is,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'The Turnbull Government continues to be tone deaf to the fact that the majority of Australians want these men evacuated immediately.

'We have a duty of care to protect them, they are refugees and our responsibility. There is an immediate solution available which is to evacuate these men to safety immediately and bring them here.'

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection confirmed there was an incident at Manus Regional Processing Centre involving residents and PNG military personnel. 

A spokesperson for the Department says PNG authorities are investigating the matter and residents are now safely inside the centre. 

'There are reports one resident was injured from a rock thrown during the incident and he is receiving treatment,' they said, noting the Department was continuing to monitor the situation. 

The Department also confirmed PNG military personnel discharged a weapon into the air during the incident but says nobody was injured. 


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BBC Monitoring Middle East - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


June 24, 2017 Saturday


Algerians use social media to reject African migrant influx


LENGTH: 624 words


Excerpt from report entitled "The campaign against refugees; are Algerians racists?" published on privately-owned Algerian newspaper El-Khabar website on 21 June

"No to Africans in Algeria" is a fervent campaign launched by Algerian activists on Facebook and Twitter against the arrival of Malian and Nigerien refugees in Algerian national territory which has resulted in many adverse manifestations in Algerian towns. The hashtag "No to Africans in Algeria" went up the hit list on Twitter with 3,000 tweets in favour and against the campaign. Meanwhile, many pages have been created with the same slogan on Facebook urging the authorities to repatriate African refugees from Algerian national territory.

Many of the tweets and reactions took a clearly racist direction in a blatant breech of the values of humanitarian solidarity and against the nature of the hospitable Algerian people. Many of the activists called for the repatriation of the refugees and exchanged stories about uncorroborated crimes attributed to some of the refugees and said that their presence among Algerians was "a curse which must be gotten rid of". The proponents of the campaign tried to include justifications linked with conspiracy theory and warned about "possible chaos" which could result from their "chaotic and inappropriate" presence. 

In tandem with the above-mentioned hashtag another more racist one appeared under the hashtag of "black barbarians" which included many racist tweets which rejected the presence of African Muslims under sometimes rational but mostly irrational pretexts.

The proponents of the campaign published photographs which depicted the catastrophic state of the refugee complexes [apparently a reference to gatherings of refugee dwellings] in the absence of organisation by the government that may ease the burden of the crisis and attributed the problem to the Africans. They are the victims in all circumstances due to deteriorating conditions in their countries of origin and the absence of an organisational policy to integrate them into society and benefit from them as effective human resources.

In contrast and under the first hashtag activists raised their voices to categorically condemn the campaign which they considered to be alien to the values and customs of the proud and hospitable Algerian people and pointed out the contradiction in the slogan which condemned the presence of Africans when Algerians themselves are Africans. Many tweets were sympathetic towards the refugees on religious and humanitarian grounds and completely rejected any call for repatriation or expulsion. [Passage omitted: More in the same vein]

In a moderate context, other activists expressed rejection of the campaign but they considered a haphazard and persistent influx of Africans into Algeria a "crisis" which could not be ignored. According to their perception, the phenomenon created many adverse phenomena such as begging and illnesses as a result of lack of cleanliness and deterioration in living conditions in remote areas. However, those activists did not call for repatriation or expulsion but called for firm measures to be taken by the Algerian authorities regarding the haphazard influx of Africans, and the organisation of asylum and absorption of refugees in an organised way, to respect their humanity and to rid towns "from the state of chaos which has come about because of them". [Passage omitted: More in the same vein]

Thousands of African migrants have come to Algeria since 2014 and reports indicated that there are 30,000 migrants from Niger, Mali and even Nigeria - their first port of call was Tamanrasset [southern Algeria]. [Passage omitted: More in the same vein]

Source: El-Khabar website in Arabic 0001 gmt 21 Jun 17


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Express Online


January 27, 2017 Friday 1:17 PM GMT 


Migrant gang 'burn down women's centre' just WEEKS after it opened


BYLINE: Jon Austin


LENGTH: 1016 words


A SPECIAL centre built to help and empower women and their babies was "destroyed by migrants" just weeks after it opened, it has emerged.

DUNKIRKREFUGEEWOMENSCENTRE*FACEBOOK

The gutted remains of the Dunkirk Refugee Women's Centre after it was hit by arsonists.

The Women's Centre at the refugee camp in Grande-Synthe on the outskirts of Dunkirk, northern France, was gutted by fire only a few weeks after it was officially opened by volunteers. 

The centre was opened as a safe place for women refugees and their infants to get emotional support, help and information around feeding babies and young children, and health advice.

It was funded by thousands of pounds raised through crowdfunding.

According to volunteers helping refugees within the camp, which has housed hundreds of migrants trying to get into the UK since 2006, it has been infiltrated by a migrant "criminal gang" that is believed may be responsible for the fire.

It is not clear if this month's alleged arson has been officially reported to the authorities, but details of it have emerged in an online blog written by a volunteer who visited the camp.

Related articles Super asylum hostels for refugees coming to a town near YOU Refugees housed by YOUR CASH 'burnt down homes and attacked staff'

Maddie McMahon, a breastfeeding counsellor from Cambridge who embarked on a visit, wrote in a blog on thebirthhub.co.uk of her upset at learning about the fire after previously visiting the centre, and of the criminal gangs. 

She said: "The Woman's Centre is gutted. So are we.

"A devastating fire. The Woman's Centre was gone. Completely gone. The volunteers and some of the refugee women and children stood around in silence. 

"No one knew what to say. We hugged. We cried. We began to ask questions. No one seemed to know what had happened.

"What was clear was that the lorry container that was being converted into a safe, quiet room for the mothers had been broken into and gutted by fire, along with the main space. 

"A deliberate act. Whether it was pre-meditated or just the result of desperation and alcohol, we don't know.

"What we do know is that there are some very bad men. 

DUNKIRKREFUGEE*FACEBOOK

It is hoped that the centre will now be rebuilt by volunteers. Related articles UK bid to bring in 20,000 Syrian refugees in 'FAILS to stop... They fled Syria years ago...but now refugees say they 'MUST' come...

"A criminal element intent on making money from these people. Those still carrying their life savings with them will pay for passage. £3,000 is the going rate to be trafficked to the uk."

She had been on a mission to deliver buckets for sterilising cups, dummies, and other infant-related equipment to mothers at the centre.

She speculated over why the centre may have burnt down, adding: "Many of these homeless men were breaking into the Woman's Centre every night, burning anything that wasn't nailed down in order to stay warm. 

"As the weather gets colder and everyone feels a bit more desperate and depressed, alcohol starts creeping into the equation."

DUNKIRKREFUGEE*FACEBOOK

The women's centre was set up with £8,000 of crowdfunded money.

Another woman, who lives near York, went on a mission to help women and child refugees in northern France this month.

She kept a diary of her trip, which she shared with Express.co.uk.

She wrote: "We contacted the Dunkirk camp Women's Centre built just two or three weeks before because we saw on Facebook the building had just burned down. The centre had been open for less than a month. 

"We then wondered why no-one was talking about the fire in the Women's Centre, a centre where the refugees got to mix with western women and become empowered. 

"This may sound controversial speculation but no-one would answer questions about the fire. 

"The fact the centre was built with £8k of crowdfunded money and lasted only two weeks was a real shame for those who put all the effort/donations in too, lets hope the new one lasts long enough to make a difference."

DUNKIRKREFUGEE*FACEBOOK

Criminal migrant men are believed by volunteers to have been responsible for the fire.

"Alcohol and machismo and organised crime...it's a volatile combination."

Ms McMahon said it was vital that permission was given "for a new structure to be built as soon as possible".

She said: "No one knows what will happen next. The deterioration of the camp will inevitably lead to even more tensions and deprivation and that leads to bad feeling and violence and a way in for organised crime, drugs and alcohol. "What was set up as a safe place for families with nothing is no longer meeting international humanitarian standards."

But, a post on her blog said it would probably just be torched again if rebuilt.

They said: "I worry that simply rebuilding the Women's Centre, without addressing the reasons for the destruction, will simply mean that there is another fire.

Related articles EXCLUSIVE: Inside squalid hotel where migrants get 'full board'... Hundreds of 'Jungle' migrants use quiet of Christmas to try to...

"This is a complex problem. The aim for everyone is surely to stem the tide of refugees to the camp, and to get the people currently there, out of the camp, and into safe lodgings."

A post on the Facebook page of the Women's Centre after the blaze said: "We would like to thank everyone who has contacted and thought of the Women's Centre since the news broke of the fire in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

"We are so touched by the messages of solidarity and support that we have received from individuals and organisations. 

"Please rest assured that everything we have lost we will rebuild. 

"The Women's Centre is not just a building, it is a network of strength, love and compassion and we are still here every day for the women, children and families of the camp.

"Please contact us for ways you can offer support."

Related articles EXCLUSIVE: Syrian refugees in Lebanon waiting to come to UK 'infiltrated by ISIS' EXCLUSIVE: English lessons for UK-bound Syrians scrapped as Home Office 'can't find them' Cameron 'warned ISIS run camps' from where UK is getting 20,000 Syrian refugees 


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 8:16 PM GMT 


'I love Australia but we had a problem': Trump AGAIN slams deal to take its refugees after angry phone call with prime minister 


BYLINE: NIKKI SCHWAB, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM, DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1734 words



President Donald Trump again slammed the deal at the center of a contentious phone call he had Saturday with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

'I love Australia as a country, but we had a problem,' Trump said, explaining how President Obama had agreed to resettle '1,000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons.'   

During the Saturday call, Trump slammed Turnbull over an asylum seeker deal, accusing the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States and then hung up on him, some news reports said.

Scroll down for video

Turnbull, however, told 2GB's Ben Fordham: 'As far as the call is concerned, I'm very disappointed, the report the president hung up is not correct, the call ended courteously.'

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about pleasant exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders. 

It was their first official telephone conversation. 

'Cordial,' is how Spicer described the exchanged from the White House podium today. 

'The president had a very cordial conversation with Prime Minister Turnbull where they went through an extensive discussion of this deal,' Spicer said. 

He then noted that Trump was 'unbelievably disappointed' and 'extremely, extremely upset' about the deal, which would bring in 1,250 refugees detained on Nauru and Manus Island into the United States. 

'I don't want these people,' Trump reportedly told Turnbull.   

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement.  

On Thursday afternoon the President took to Twitter to slam the Obama administration for agreeing to take on the refugees in the first place.

'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!,' he wrote.  

But Sky News sources claim Trump was 'yelling' at Turnbull at points during the heated conversation, which took place on Saturday afternoon Washington time, Sunday morning Australian time.

WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIA-US REFUGEE DEAL?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump agreed to honor the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

Trump indicated he was skeptical about what America got out of honoring the deal. 

After Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, President Trump ended the conversation.

'During call with Australian PM on refugees, Trump pulled phone away from ear and says he wants off call, which ends abruptly per source,' CNN reporter Jim Acosta tweeted.

Under the agreement reached with the Obama administration, Australian would take a number of South American refugees, currently in a processing center in Costa Rica, in return.

These refugees are predominantly Christian, according to reports.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Sky News reporter Laura Jayes said Australian government sources who took part in discussions after the call said Turnbull viewed the president as a 'bully'. 

'What I derived from that was Malcolm Turnbull used this phone call to push back,' Ms Jayes said.

'He wasn't just sitting there being berated by Donald Trump, he talked about how important it was for (Trump) to honor the deal.'

The explosive report was viewed as a huge embarrassment for Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. 

The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honor the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honor the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that President Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

'CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING': UN HITS OUT OVER 'OPEN-AIR PRISON'

Australia has been heavily criticized by the UN for its policy of sending migrants to offshore detention centers.

In November UN investigator Francois Crepeau visited the island of Nauru, where asylum seekers who arrive by boat are sent, and described conditions as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.

Mr Crepeau said Australia's policies 'have increasingly eroded the human rights of migrants in contravention of its international human rights and humanitarian obligations'.

And he continued: 'Australia would vehemently protest if its citizens were treated like this by other counties and especially if Australian children were treated like this.'

Amnesty International said in October that the immigration center was an 'open-air prison'. 

It comes just one day after Spicer told reporters Trump would honor the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. 

'There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honor the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honor what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 

TOUGH IMMIGRATION LAWS WHICH SEE 'BOAT PEOPLE' SENT TO OFFSHORE CAMPS

Offshore detention in Australia has been in place since 2001, and in 2013 Australia's mainland was excluded from its migration zone for people who arrive by boat.

Now migrants who arrive on Australian shores by sea are immediately sent to the island of Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

They stay in detention facilities while their applications to be accepted into Australia are processed. 

Although 90 percent are ruled to have valid claims, they are not allowed to settle in the Australian mainland, instead being allowed to stay in Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

The policy has come under heavy fire, with conditions in the camp branded 'inhuman' by a UN inspector in November.

Supporters claim it deters migrants from arriving in dangerous vessels, and ensures refugees enter the country through proper channels.

In 2015 Australia agreed to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria. 

The previous year violence had erupted at a protest at the detention center on Manus Island, and a 23-year-old Iranian man was killed.

Turnbull has previously stated that Australians cannot be 'misty-eyed' about immigration, saying: 'We must have secure borders and we do and we will, and they will remain so, as long as I am the prime minister of this country.'   


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Peebleshire News


January 21, 2017 Saturday


"Every refugee has a story to tell", says Peebles mum Mary


BYLINE: Kris Tatum


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 528 words


A PEEBLES woman has described being "overcome with emotion" at what she saw during a recent trip to help refugees stranded in France.

Mary Mackay, 79, and her daughter Karen, 56, spent between Christmas and New Year in Calais.

It follows a similar trip last January when Mary and five members of her family volunteered at the notorious French refugee camp nicknamed 'the jungle'. 

The camp has since been demolished and now many of the of the refugees are living in a camp in Dunkirk, in hope of travelling to the UK.

Mary and Karen left on Tuesday, December 27, taking sleeping bags and blankets donated by Peebles residents. They returned home on January 5.

Mary described the situation in France and how they helped.

"Small wooden huts were erected as dwellings in the camp as opposed to the assortment of tents and makeshift coverings they lived in when in The Jungle. Wooden huts may sound like luxury in comparison to tents but there is no heating, electricity or insulation consequently they are freezing inside. The exact number of refugees in the camp is not known but estimated to be well over 1,000.

"Me and Karen worked mainly in the RCK (Refugees Community Kitchen) in Calais which is a 40-minute drive from Dunkirk. 

"The kitchen provides hot meals for refugees every day as well the volunteers working in the warehouse and in RCK. My work each morning was helping alongside other volunteers, preparing mounds of vegetables for the 'cooks' and to cut up ingredients for salad. 

"All the fresh food is bought locally and paid for by donations. Most dried foods such as rice, sugar, salt, coffee, tea, tinned food and other basic ingredients are donated by individuals as well as companies, with second day bread donated by local shops. 

"I was overcome with emotion on several occasions when we were thanked so sincerely for the hot food. When we almost finished serving, a man came with his six children, we had almost run out of containers and still had a queue. 

"He asked if he came back with a plate, if we could give him more rice for his family. When he came back with the plastic plate we had in fact run out of containers, so he went back and brought more plates so that everyone could eat. 

"I watched him run back to his hut, he had a limp but was obviously trying to run fast. He came back with some plastic plates and handed them out to the people waiting in the queue. 

"I found this all very touching. Here was this man, despite the struggle he must have had to reach Calais with his wife and six children with nothing other than what they could carry, so willing to help others. 

"Every refugee has a story to tell, one lovely man I spoke to had taken eight months to walk from Afghanistan. He had no passport or papers and spent one month in jail in France before being sent to the camp. 

"Who knows how it will end for the refugees and how long their hopes of being granted asylum will last. 

"People can be forgiven for thinking the refugee problem has been solved since we are no longer being bombarded with it by the media. This is not the case, they still desperately need help and support."

To donate or volunteer visit; www.refugeecommunitykitchen.com.


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 11:39 PM GMT 


Sir Mo Farah faces being BANNED from returning to his family in America under Donald Trump's immigration crackdown on people from his Somali homeland 


BYLINE: REBECCA TAYLOR FOR MAILONLINE


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1428 words



Olympic hero Sir Mo Farah could be banned from returning to his home in America after Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The sprinter, who lives with his family in Oregon, is believed to be training in Ethiopia at the moment, and recently tweeted from there. 

President Trump's immigration crackdown prevents refugees coming into the USA from seven Muslim majority countries for 90 days and those from Syria indefinitely.

The ban also affects those with dual nationality, who were born in one of the seven countries, returning to the USA if they are currently away.  

In a statement that the State Department is due to release, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the 90-day visa moratorium extends beyond just citizens of Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen.

It also applies to people who originally hail from those countries but are traveling on a passport issued by any other nation, the statement notes. 

Sir Mo is originally from Somalia and moved to the UK when he was eight-years-old. 

Because he was born in one of the countries President Trump has targeted, travelling on a British passport will not help him return home. 

The statement means Iraqis seeking to enter the U.S. on a British passport, for instance, will be barred, according to a U.S. official. British citizens don't normally require a visa to enter the U.S.

'Travelers who have nationality or dual nationality of one of these countries will not be permitted for 90 days to enter the United States or be issued an immigrant or non-immigrant visa,' the statement said. 

'Those nationals or dual nationals holding valid immigrant or non-immigrant visas will not be permitted to enter the United States during this period. Visa interviews will generally not be scheduled for nationals of these countries during this period.'

Donald Trump defended his tough new immigration bans, and denied that his executive order, which bars refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US, was a Muslim ban. 

A Conservative MP also tweeted to say he is banned from the USA under President Trump's controversial ruling.

Nadhim Zahawi represents Stratford-on-Avon but both he and his wife were born in Iraq.

He tweeted: 'I'm a British citizen & so proud to have been welcomed to this country. Sad to hear ill [sic] be banned from the USA based on my country of birth.'

He added: 'Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual Nat.

'A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen! Sad day for the USA.' 

The ban has also already affected an Iranian director nominated for an Oscar, who now won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his movie The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards, because he was born in Iran. 

An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans.

Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.

'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted.

Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation. 

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Iranian-born Hessam Noorian, who has a British passport and a US Green Card was held at Chicago airport for five hours as he tried to return home.

He said they asked him several questions, and searched his backpack and possessions. 

He has an Iranian passport and a British passport, and was told possession of the Iranian passport necessitated the questions. 

It took five hours to receive a waiver, he told the Chicago Tribune.  

Seven refugees bound for the U.S. were stopped from boarding a plane in Cairo on Saturday and 12 migrants were detained in New York overnight because they arrived just after the executive order was signed. 

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, one of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours at New York, was released on Saturday afternoon.

The 53-year-old had arrived in America on a flight from Istanbul on Friday night, just hours after Trump implemented the immigration ban.

He had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America.

The dual-citizenship ban doesn't apply to U.S. citizens who are also citizens of the seven nations singled out by Mr. Trump.

The State Department statement also said such restrictions don't apply to people from those countries traveling on diplomatic visas.

The official said that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. consulate in Erbil have stopped accepting visa applications from Iraqi nationals until further notice, except for certain diplomatic exceptions.

The urgent steps come as State Department officials try to sort out how to implement Mr. Trump's broadly-worded policy executive order. Officials said they received little information about the ban before it took effect from the Trump team. 

One described how a draft of the order was brought in unofficially to the State Department earlier this week to review before it took effect. 

At a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Theresa May repeatedly refused to criticise President Trump's executive order.

At a news conference in Ankara, Prime Minister May said: 'The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees. The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees.

'And our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria.'

On Saturday evening, a Downing St spokesman said Theresa May does 'not agree' with Donald Trump's refugee ban and will make representations if it hits Britons.

However just yards away from her, Prime Minister Yildirim was putting the boot in, saying building walls would not help the refugee crisis.

He said: 'We cannot solve this refugee problem by putting up walls.

'We opened our doors, and if they come again, we would take them again.

'Regional problems cannot be solved by sweeping them under the carpet.'

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: 'British citizens banned from the US and our government has nothing to say? Disgrace.' 

According to the Mirror, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: 'Not only is this shocking even by her standards, it cannot be allowed to stand. The President's actions have horrified the world, and this is a moment when she has to show what side she is on.

'At the press conference she contrived to make the Turkish government look liberal.

'They said it was wrong to build walls. Rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united, Theresa May is dividing the world in a very dangerous way.'

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.


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The Guardian(London)


April 14, 2017 Friday 12:06 PM GMT 


Shots fired as armed mob tries to storm Manus detention centre, reports say;
A group of locals, including personnel from naval base, tried to break into camp to attack refugees after incident outside the centre, according to reports


BYLINE: Ben Doherty


SECTION: AUSTRALIA NEWS; Version:1


LENGTH: 570 words


Shots have been fired into the Manus Island detention centre as an armed mob attempted to storm the compound, according to reports from security personnel and refugees inside the centre. 

At about 6.30pm on Friday, it was reported that a large group of local men had attempted to break into the camp to attack refugees and asylum seekers inside.

Several of the attackers, including reportedly some personnel from the naval base where the detention centre is located, were armed. Live rounds were fired into the compounds of the detention centre, as refugees and asylum seekers cowered inside.

Related: Peter Dutton says refugee advocates 'can bleat all they want' after PM dodges questions

Security personnel working in the detention centre confirmed to Guardian Australia that shots had been fired into the detention centre. Bullets have reportedly been found inside some detention centre compounds, and bullet-holes identified in accommodation blocks.

There were reports of some injuries, but these have not been confirmed.

Manus province police commander David Yapu confirmed his officers had responded to reports of "a situation at the centre". Reinforcement police had been sent to the detention centre.

Related: Manus centre has been closed, PNG chief justice says - despite the 800 men still held there

One refugee inside the camp told Guardian Australia: "The local guys attacked the camps, and they just used the guns. They just shoot the guns. I don't know what to do."

As he spoke, gunshots could be heard in the background, causing him to cower. Voices could be heard yelling in the background as well.

It is understood the incident may have been sparked by some sort of confrontation on a field just outside of the detention centre. Refugees - though not asylum seekers - are allowed, under certain conditions, outside the wire of the detention centre.

According to some reports, shortly after the incident on the field, a group of local men began attacking the centre with rocks and knives.

After PNG police fired shots at the group, the group, which reportedly included naval personnel, left only to return carrying weapons, and responded by firing at the PNG police and shooting into the compounds.

It is not clear how the incident escalated to the point of a large group trying to storm the detention centre or from where the weapons were brought.

Relations between the refugees and asylum seekers held within the detention centre and local Manusians wax and wane, but there is an underlying mistrust of the transplanted population on behalf of the local people and a fear from the refugees.

In February 2014, the detention centre was attacked during a riot and more than 70 asylum seekers seriously injured.

Related: Amnesty warns any company taking over Manus and Nauru camps complicit in 'abuse'

One man was shot, another had his throat cut and Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati was murdered by up to 15 people kicking him and jumping on his head.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition, who has been in contact with several people on Manus Island, said the Manus detention centre was not safe, and should be immediately closed.

"It's just further graphic proof of just how precarious the detention centre is and how vulnerable the men held inside are, that a small incident outside the detention could result in shots being fired at unarmed people, endangering the lives of asylum seekers and refugees."


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telegraph.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 11:17 AM GMT 


Donald Trump's so-called Muslim ban is unnecessary and wrong. It'll do more harm than good


BYLINE: By Tim Stanley


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 713 words


Donald Trump's migration crackdown is unnecessary and unethical. The United States has a right to take steps to defend its citizens against terrorism: George W Bush imposed a similar travel ban during the tense months that followed 9-11. But this doesn't meet any obvious strategic challenge. It's the triumph of domestic politics over good sense.

.html-embed.component .quote.component{margin-left:0}.html-embed.component .quote.component .component-content{margin-right:16px}.quote__source, .quote__author {white-space: normal;}@media only screen and (min-width:730px){.html-embed.component .quote.component{margin-left:-60.83px}.html-embed.component .quote.component .quote__content:before{margin-left:-12px;padding-right:1px}}@media only screen and (min-width:1008px){.html-embed.component .quote.component{margin-left:-82.33px}}The Islamic State will be able to point to Trump's words on terrorism and Islam as proof that the "crusader states" are either indifferent to Muslim suffering or actively encouraging it. 

Let's be clear about what Trump's executive order actually does. It's not a blanket Muslim ban. It's a temporary ban on migration from seven terror-prone countries lasting 90 days and a suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, until improved vetting can be put in place. The total number of refugees that will be permitted into the country in 2017 is to be capped at 50,000, which is half of the current rate. Many Americans will say that this is reasonable. They're worried about reports of rape and violence following the mass exodus of Syrians to northern Europe, as well as reports of terrorists using refugee routes to enter the EU and attack its citizens.

But just because Americans are worried about something doesn't make it correct. The facts belie any belief that the US has a refugee problem: it just doesn't take that many people. For instance, America only took around 15,000 Syrians in 2016 - the majority of whom were women and children. Over half were infants. The vetting is rigorous. Only a small percentage of refugees make it through an initial screening, and they are then screened by several security departments in a process that can take up to two years.

Many Americans imagine hot-headed young Muslim men queuing up to get on planes bound for a land of milk and honey. But it just ain't true.

Watch | Donald Trump and Theresa May hold hands ahead of joint press conference 00:56

As Peter Bergen writes, "All the lethal acts of jihadist terrorism in the States since 9/11 have been carried out by American citizens or legal residents, and none of them have been the work of Syrian refugees." Around a quarter of all attacks have been perpetrated by converts to Islam. Ergo, the link between migration and terrorism is weak, which makes a refugee ban look arbitrary and cruel.

The choice of countries affected is pretty random, too. Iran makes the list - even though the incidence of Western, Shia, state-sponsored terrorism is negligible - and yet Afghanistan and Pakistan, both undeniably sources of extremism are excluded. The argument goes that the countries chosen have either governments that back terror or powerful terrorist groups that hold territory there. But that's actually a solid reason to take refugees from those nations - i.e. the refugees are obviously fleeing persecution.

Given the random nature of the policy and its unclear goals, the administration leaves itself open to the charge of Islamophobia. This is a propaganda coup for the enemy. The Islamic State will be able to point to Trump's words on terrorism and Islam as proof that the "crusader states" are either indifferent to Muslim suffering or actively encouraging it. Moreover, the whiff of Islamophobia will have a detrimental effect upon the lives of US Muslim citizens who, again, fit no easy stereotype. American Muslims are largely middle-class and well educated ; integration has mostly been achieved. As of 2012, there were 3,600 Muslims on active duty in the US military.

Trump has made a mistake. Of course, it's arguably what people voted for. But that doesn't make it practicable or right, and moderate Republicans should call a mistake a mistake when they see one being made.

Donald Trump on Muslim countries


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MailOnline


June 26, 2017 Monday 11:02 AM GMT 


Thousands of illegal immigrants who fled to Canada in fear of Trump are trapped in legal limbo without jobs, permanent homes or schools for their kids


BYLINE: REUTERS


SECTION: NEWS; Version:3


LENGTH: 817 words



Thousands of people who fled to Canada to escape President Donald Trump 's crackdown on illegal migrants have become trapped in legal limbo because of an overburdened refugee system, struggling to find work, permanent housing or enrol their children in schools. 

Refugee claims are taking longer to be completed than at any time in the past five years, according to previously unpublished Immigration and Refugee Board data provided to Reuters. 

Those wait times are set to grow longer after the IRB in April allocated 'up to half' of its 127 tribunal members to focus on old cases. 

The number of delayed hearings more than doubled from 2015 to 2016 and is on track to increase again this year.

Hearings are crucial to establishing a claimant´s legal status in Canada. Without that status, they struggle to convince employers to hire them or landlords to rent to them. 

Claimants cannot access loans or student financial aid, or update academic or professional credentials to meet Canadian standards. 

Canada's refugee system was struggling to process thousands of applications even before 3,500 asylum seekers began crossing the U.S. border on foot in January. 

It lacks the manpower to complete security screenings for claimants and hear cases in a timely manner. 

Often there are not enough tribunal members to decide cases or interpreters to attend hearings, the IRB said.

More than 4,500 hearings scheduled in the first four months of 2017 were cancelled, according to the IRB data.

The government is now focused on clearing a backlog of about 24,000 claimants, including people who filed claims in 2012 or earlier. 

That means more than 15,000 people who have filed claims so far this year, including the new arrivals from the United States, will have to wait even longer for their cases to be heard.

Asylum cases are already taking longer to finalize, on average, than at any time since Canada introduced a statutory two-month time limit in 2012. This year, it has been taking 5.6 months on average, compared to 3.6 months in 2013.

Mohamed Daud, 36, left his family and a pending refugee claim in the United States and walked into Canada in February after hearing rumors of U.S. immigration raids. 

Daud, originally from Somalia, had been living and working legally in Nebraska but feared he would be detained and then deported at an upcoming check-in with immigration officials.

His May 8 hearing with a Canadian refugee tribunal was cancelled three days beforehand. He has not been given a new date.

'I don´t know when they will call me. I can´t work. It isn't easy,' said Daud. While waiting for a work permit, he gets approximately C$600 ($453) a month in government social assistance and shares a room in an apartment with six other asylum seekers.

Still, Daud doesn't regret abandoning his life in the United States.

'The worry, the fear is the same,' he said.

To try to speed cases through, Canada's refugee tribunal has put people from certain war-torn countries such as Syria and Yemen on an expedited track that requires no hearings. 

Border agents are working overtime to address the backlog in security screenings, said Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who oversees the Canada Border Services Agency.

Asylum claimants are eligible for work permits while awaiting hearings, but employers are often reluctant to employ people with temporary social insurance numbers whose future is uncertain, refugee lawyers told Reuters.

'How do you establish yourself when your status is unknown?' said Toronto-based lawyer Aadil Mangalji.

This year is on track to be the highest year for refugee claims since at least 2011, according to government statistics.

The stresses on the Canadian system mirror those of other countries with an open door policy. In Sweden, rising financial strains involved in resettlement were partly behind a move to introduce tough asylum laws.

Honduran Raul Contreras, 19, who walked across the Quebec border in March and whose hearing has been postponed indefinitely, is staying in a government-subsidized Toronto hotel with his mother, step-father and uncle. 

Contreras, who spends his days at a local library or working out in the hotel gym, says he has been repeatedly rejected by landlords.

'They just said that they didn't rent places to refugee claimants,' he said. '(They) said that refugees don't have jobs and probably wouldn't pay.'


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BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring


April 6, 2017 Thursday


EU rejects Austria request for refugee relocation exemption


LENGTH: 821 words


Text of report by Austrian newspaper Die Presse website on 6 April

[Unattributed report: "Juncker Rejects Kern's Request over Refugee Relocation Scheme"]

Austria is obliged to take in 1,900 third-country refugees from Italy and Greece by September, the EU Commission President [Jean-Claude Juncker] stresses in a reply letter to the Austrian Chancellor [Christian Kern]. The latter still sees some "leeway," but Interior Minister Sobotka is ready to start "relocation" [preceding term in quotation marks published in original English].

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has rejected the request by Austria's Federal Chancellor Christian Kern (SPOe [Social Democratic Party of Austria]). In a letter to Juncker a week ago, Kern had asked the EU Commission to exempt Austria from the so-called "relocation" scheme. The term describes a programme to resettle asylum seekers from Italy and Greece to other EU countries. Most recently, Austria refused to participate, arguing that, in 2015 and 2016, far more first applications for asylum had been filed in Austria than in Italy and Greece. Thus, already now, Austria had more than fulfilled its obligation, the government claimed. 

Apparently, Juncker was not impressed by the arguments of the Austrian Chancellor and made it clear now -- also by letter -- to Kern that Austria needed to meet its duties. "Austria is legally bound to participate in the relocation programme, and I personally expect that Austria fulfils its obligation," Juncker wrote in a letter to the Federal Chancellor. In 2015, Austria had agreed to take in about 1,900 refugees within the framework of the programme from Italy and Greece. Because of the great influx of refugees into Austria, however, the country was granted an exemption from the scheme until March 2017.

He was aware that Austria "was one of the most important representatives and supporters of a comprehensive European migration policy" in the past two years, Juncker wrote. But compared to the years 2015 and 2016, the situation had considerably changed, he added. Europe had established controls along its borders and coasts, the hotspots [preceding term published in original English] in Italy and Greece were fully operational, and the number of asylum applications in Austria had decreased. But Italy and Greece were still under pressure and needed help, as pledged, he stated.

In concrete terms, Juncker said: "The relocation is an expression of solidarity and equitable distribution of responsibility. This requires active cooperation of all member countries. We do not have much time left to act. It would not be a good sign if we together failed to relocate the agreed number of refugees from Italy and Greece by September 2017."

"To Discuss Measures To Support Austria"

According to Juncker, the current situation cannot be described as "a sudden influx" of third-country nationals that will justify further exemption from the EU Council provisions. "Hence, I rely on Austria to meet its legal obligations and start the resettlement of refugees from both Italy and Greece," the Commission President writes to the Federal Chancellor.

In other words, within the framework of the relocation programme, Austria needs to take in about 1,900 refugees from Italy and Greece. According to Juncker, the EU Commission is ready for talks "to discuss measures to support the Austrian authorities to gradually meet their legal obligations."

Federal Chancellor's Office Still Sees "Leeway" on Number of Refugees

On Wednesday [5 April], Federal Chancellor Kern called Juncker's letter a sound basis for further talks about the EU refugee relocation programme. Basically, it was undisputable from the legal point of view that Austria had to meet its obligations, but at the same time, Juncker's letter signalled the EU's readiness for concessions, sources from the Federal Chancellor's Office reported. Thus, for example, the Chancellor's Office still sees "leeway" on the number and the timeframe of the relocation obligations.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz (OeVP [Austrian People's Party]) said that he was not surprised that Juncker had rejected Austria's request. It was "to be expected" that the Commission would urge Austria to meet its obligations, Kurz said addressing journalists in Innsbruck on Wednesday. The Foreign Minister pointed out that there had been "dissent" on the issue in the Federal Government. He had not been "involved." The people responsible for the matter in the Federal Government had to answer that question now, Kurz said.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka (OeVP) is ready to start the programme for the relocation of refugees in Europe. "We are legally bound to implement the agreement and we will now start the process," Sobotka's spokesman said on Wednesday with reference to Juncker's letter. The Federal Chancellor's Office has not yet issued a statement.

Source: Die Presse website in German 6 Apr 17


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liverpoolecho.co.uk


January 31, 2017 Tuesday 12:25 PM GMT 


10 controversial things Donald Trump has done since becoming President;
The billionaire hasn't even been in the White House for two weeks but is already causing an international stir


BYLINE: By Steffan Rhys


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1567 words


After less than a fortnight as President of the United StatesDonald Trumphas certainly made an impression across the world.

President Trumpwas officially sworn in on January 20, 2017 and has moved quickly to enact some of the policies he talked about so boldly on the campaign trail.

His critics hoped his more outlandish claims would be scaled back once in the White House, but so far he's banned people from a number of Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, banned Syrian refugees indefinitely, withdrawn funding from organisations that provide abortions and ordered the building of THAT wall.

Here are the policiesPresident Trumphas already moved to enact:

Trump has blocked immigrants and visa holders from seven countries - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan - from entering the US for 90 days. Announcing his "extreme vetting" plan, he invoked the September 11 attacks. Most of the hijackers on that day were from Saudi Arabia. The rest were from the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon. 

Referring to Islamic terrorists, Mr Trump was reported by the New York Times to say: "We don't want them here. We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas."

James Corden says he's 'proud of the people of Liverpool' for anti-Trump protest

There is confusion around the order, but it seems to apply not just to refugees or immigrants seeking entry into the US for the first time, but even to people from those seven countries who currently hold green cards and are permanent US residents.

So if they leave the US, they may not be allowed back in. Green-card holders already in the US are reportedly being advised to postpone plans to travel abroad. Somali-born athlete Mo Farah - a four-time Olympic champion for Great Britain who now lives in the US - says he is scared he will "have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home" .

The restriction also applies to dual nationals. So a British citizen who is also a citizen of Iran will not be able to enter the US.

Trump tweet

The American Civil Liberties Union has called it a "euphemism for discriminating against Muslims". A federal judge issued a temporary halt to the deportation of visa holders or refugees stranded at US airports, after the ACLU filed a lawsuit.

It had an immediate impact on people around the world, stranding legal residents of the US (and other countries) and travellers with visas at airports, where confusion reigned.

On Sunday evening, a top White House official appeared to reverse a key part of the order,the New York Times reported, saying that people from the affected countries who hold green cards will not be prevented from returning to the United States. However, he also said border agents had "discretionary authority" to detain and question suspicious travelers from certain countries.

Thousands turn out for anti-Trump protest after travel ban

The US Refugee Admissions Programme has been suspended for 120 days.

This suspends the entry of refugees into the US and directs officials to determine additional screening "to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States". He also set a cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted to the US in 2017.Barack Obamahad set the limit at 110,000.

Raymond Offensheiser, the president of Oxfam America, said: "The refugees impacted by today's decision are among the world's most vulnerable people... who are simply trying to find a safe place to live after fleeing unfathomable violence and loss."

There is a critical humanitarian crisis in Syria, where civilians have been dying in huge numbers as a result of the country's civil war.

Almost five million people have been displaced from Syria since the civil war began - in 2016, 12,587 of them ended up in the US as refugees, saidThe Guardian, who also reported that America's Syrian refugee resettlement programme has been called "one of the most important in the world". According to the UN, more than 400,000 people have died in Syria's civil war.

Trump's order stops the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely.

Another executive order signed by Trump reinstated the so-called "global gag rule", to use the term adopted by its critics.According to Vox, "this is a a policy from previous Republican administrations that blocks federal funding from international family planning organisations that 'either provide abortion or discuss abortion services with their clients'."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said this would "end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions overseas, along with coercive abortion and sterilization practices".

However, Vox reports that there's already a law in place to prevent foreign aid from being used to provide abortions. The "global gag rule" goes further by also taking funding from international organisations that discuss abortion services (which could then be privately funded).

Twitter backlash as Trump signs anti-abortion law in one of first acts as President

Trump is not the first to do this, though. The policy was introduced in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Since then, every Democratic president has rescinded the measure and every Republican has brought it back.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said: "We know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and abortions."

This executive order called on the Department of Homeland Security to "take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border". A second order pledges to hire 10,000 more immigration officers.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he was going to build the wall, which he described as "beautiful", and insisted it would be paid for by the Mexican government, who have repeatedly said they won't be doing that.

Donald Trump wall

The US-Mexico border is 1,989 miles long and there are already fences built along parts of it. However, the US doesn't own all of the land adjacent to the border, law professor Philip Schragtold CBS. He said: "In Texas, apparently there are a great many of the lands adjacent to the border in private hands, so the government would first have to seize the land by eminent domain or purchase it from the owners and then deal with the construction problems".

Five ways Trump's decisions will affect you

The Keystone pipeline is a 1,179-mile pipeline being built, running from Canada to America's Gulf Coast. It would carry petroleum. Its construction was halted by Barack Obama in 2015, with concerns over how its continued construction squared with a commitment to climate change.

The Dakota Access pipeline would carry crude oil from the state of North Dakota to other parts of the country. There have been massive protests over its construction after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said the pipeline interfered with their drinking water. And in December, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would explore an alternative route.

Trump signed memoranda that renew the process for constructing both pipelines.

Donald Trump Liverpool

Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP) negotiations began under President Obama. Trump has issued a memorandum that called on the US to pull out of the partnership. The deal had never actually gone into effect in the US.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) was a huge overhaul of the US healthcare system done by the previous president's administration. Its aim was to extend health insurance coverage to those in the US that didn't have it (an estimated 15%).

It did this by requiring all Americans to have health insurance but offering subsidies to make coverage more affordable. It also required businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance.

Republicans have constantly opposed it, however, saying it imposes too many costs on business and intrudes too far into the lives and affairs of private businesses and individuals.

Ten anti-trump placards that prove no one can protest quite like Scousers

One of the first things Trump did as president was to issue a directive to federal agencies involved in the healthcare system to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" any portion of the Affordable Care Act that creates financial burden on states, individuals or healthcare providers. He said this should be done "to the maximum extent permitted by law". This order technically does not give these agencies any powers they don't already have - it's been described more as "a planted flag".

Trump signed an order that he said would result in "a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States". He called for budget negotiations to acquire new planes, ships and resources.

Trump said America's "military strength will be questioned by no one, but neither will the nation's commitment to peace."

Trump issued a memorandum imposing a freeze on all federal civilian employees "across the board". No vacant positions were allowed to be filled and no new positions could be created "except in limited circumstances". The memorandum does not apply to military personnel. Trump wants to reduce government debts and decrease the size of the federal workforce.


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FinancialWire


April 4, 2017 Tuesday


PM dedicates £1bn in aid money for Syrian refugees and host countries


LENGTH: 930 words


https://www.gov.uk

The Prime Minister will today set out the details of a £1 billion jobs and education package to support the most vulnerable victims of the Syrian conflict.

The overseas development funding, an allocation of £840 million pledges made last year at the London Syria Conference along with £160 million of new money, will provide vital support for refugees and the countries hosting them across the region.
 



This includes Jordan where there are currently over 650,000 registered Syrian refugees. The Prime Minister will witness the challenges facing Jordan first-hand today as she visits a school in the country educating young Syrian refugees and Jordanian children.

Today's announcement comes ahead of a UK co-hosted Syria conference in Brussels later this week and builds on the UK's leadership at the London Syria Conference last year, where the UK made education for children and the creation of jobs in the Middle East the main focus. At the event - following extensive UK lobbying - more than £9.6 billion was pledged in total by the international community, bringing hope to millions of people across the region.

The package of UK support will focus on creating new incentives for refugees to remain close to home so they don't feel forced to make the perilous and potentially life-threatening journey to Europe.

It will focus on providing more education, skills and jobs for refugees and others in countries like Jordan that border Syria, bringing them the stability and resilience to cope with the ongoing influx of people seeking shelter and giving those people the chance to build themselves meaningful long-term futures in the region.

The UK support includes:

- humanitarian aid including food, vaccinations, shelter and basic health care for millions of vulnerable people inside Syria and across the region

- education for tens of thousands of children in Jordan and Lebanon over the next 3 years, along with work to improve standards and provide vocational training for pupils in Jordan, making it easier for families to build a future in the region

- new funding for infrastructure in Jordan and Lebanon potentially creating thousands of new jobs, providing refugees and host communities with opportunities in the region while supporting vital building work potentially including waste water plants, schools and roads

- new support and advice to small and medium-sized businesses in Lebanon to create more jobs for host communities and Syrian refugees

- British expertise and technical advice to the governments of Jordan and Lebanon to accelerate private sector-led growth and job creation

Speaking ahead of her visit to Jordan, the Prime Minister said:

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives and millions more have been forced to flee their homes by the barbarity of the Syria conflict. The UK has led the international response to the defining humanitarian crisis of our generation, and will continue to set the pace.

The ambitious approach agreed in London last year is delivering real results and giving refugees what they want - opportunities and education close to home that provide a meaningful alternative to risking their lives trying to reach Europe. This is clearly in the UK's national interest.

I will be urging the countries attending the Brussels Conference to follow Global Britain's lead and deliver on the promises we made in London by stepping up assistance to the millions of people affected by the ongoing Syria conflict and helping to build resilience across the region.

We are a kind and generous country that will never turn our backs on those who so desperately need our support.Further information

The London Conference on Syria and the region took place on 4 February 2016 and was co-hosted by the UK, along with Germany, Kuwait, Norway and the United Nations. It brought together more than 60 countries and organisations, including 33 heads of state and Governments. In excess of £9.6 billion was pledged by the international community - the most that has ever been committed for a humanitarian crisis in a single day.

Historic 'Compact' agreements struck with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as part of the London Conference aimed to create at least 1.1 million jobs in the region. Refugee-hosting countries agreed to ensure that no child missed out on the chance of an education as a result of the conflict, including a pledge to deliver education to all refugee and host community children in countries neighbouring Syria.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have now received new training and job opportunities and nearly half a million Syrian refugee children are now in quality education in both Lebanon and Jordan.

The UK committed £1.2 billion in new funding at the London Conference, taking our total commitments at that point to more than £2.3 billion. By the end of 2016, the UK had delivered £550 million in new funding, £40 million more than the £510 million it had pledged for 2016.

Total UK funding for the Syria crisis now stands at £2.46 billion.

The Brussels Conference will take place on 4 and 5 April and will bring ministerial representatives from a large number of delegations, including the EU and the region but also the wider international community, the United Nations, major donors and civil society, humanitarian and development organisations. The UK is once again co-hosting the Conference, along with the European Union, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Qatar and the United Nations. The Foreign Secretary and the Development Secretary will jointly represent the UK.



(Distributed by M2 Communications (www.m2.com))


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Express Online


January 30, 2017 Monday 12:18 PM GMT 


Obama kicked out more migrants than ANY US president - critics slam anti-Trump protestors


BYLINE: Rebecca Perring


LENGTH: 693 words


CRITICS have laid into "ridiculous" protestors campaigning over Donald Trump's migrant ban by highlighting President Barack Obama was actually the first to boot refugees out of America.

Outrage has erupted over the US President's controversial temporary executive order to halt refugees from seven Muslim countries, with thousands of protestors taking to the street across the world. 

However opponents have been quick to highlight Barack Obama banned Iraqi refugees from entering the US in 2011 over terrorism fears.  

Mr Obama's administration stopped processing all applications from Iraqi migrants over a six-month time period. 

It has also emerged Democrat favourite and husband of Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, took a tough stance against immigration, deporting the highest number on record in 2000 when 1,864,343 aliens were booted out, according to the US Center for Immigration studies. 

GETTY

Critics say Barack Obama kept out refugees with an Iraqi migrant policy Related articles Greece doesn't KNOW what it's thinking German finance minister warns Dutch demands EU fat cats stop WASTING money & slash parliament seats

GETTY

Protestors take to the streets to campaign against Donald Trump's migrant ban

Iain Dale, political commentator and LBC presenter, waded into the debate telling protestors not to get carried away. 

He wrote: "I condemn it unreservedly and I think the Prime Minister made a mistake in not doing the same.

"But, let's put this into a little perspective before we all rush away with the idea that Trump has done something totally wicked, unprecedented and proves that he is a modern day incarnation of Hitler...

"Back in 2011 President Obama did exactly the same thing. He banned all refugees from Iraq. Not for three months, but for six. 

"There was not a peep from the media about this. Or if there was, I must have missed it. But that's because of course Obama could do no wrong." 

GETTY

Donald Trump has banned refugees from seven Muslim countries from entering the US

He added: "It is based on prejudice and fearmongering. It's not a Fascist measure - unless you're happy to apply the word to Barack Obama too."

Mr Dale's comments come after George Galloway came to defence of Donald Trump and lashed out at Clinton and Obama supporters for standing by when Democrats murdered a "million Muslims".

The former Labour MP tweeted: "Obama deported more folks than ALL US presidents put together. If you were with Obama you've no moral standing."

Mr Trump's executive order has banned migrants from seven Muslim countries including Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq from coming to the US for the next 90 days. 

The executive order also indefinitely blocks Syrian refugees from entering and lowers migrant numbers entering the US to 50,000 refugees. 

Since the order has been introduced, 109 people who were in transit on airplanes were denied entry and 173 had not been allowed to get on their planes overseas.

GETTY

Trump raised Obama's Iraqi ban to justify his migrant ban

And so far no green-card holders have been prevented from entering the US. 

Mr Trump raised Obama's Iraqi ban on January 29 when he attempted to defend his immigration executive order. 

He wrote: "My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.

"The seven countries named in the executive order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror."

Mr Obama's freeze over the processing of Iraqi refugees for six months was introduced after two Al-Qaeda members from Iraq, who were living in Bowling Green, Kentucky, admitted to targeting US troops in Iraq. 

However his programme did not impact green card holders, or anyone with a visa. 

It also didn't affect refugees who had already gone through the vetting process. 

And in contrast, Mr Trump's order gives preference to religious minority groups, such as Christians.

Related articles Migrants in Switzerland take HOLIDAYS in countries they are fleeing Nick Clegg rakes in '£40,000 for FOUR hours of work' giving speeches GRAPHIC: Horrifying moment basketball player's eyeball pops out


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February 4, 2017 Saturday  
Edition 1;
National Edition


Installation puts us in the shoes of fleeing migrants;
An exhibition about the refugee crisis has proved a popular if uncomfortable attraction at Baltic, as DAVID WHETSTONE reports


BYLINE: DAVID WHETSTONE


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 54,55


LENGTH: 1097 words


THE refugee crisis has been a grim staple of newspapers and TV bulletins but an art exhibition offers another compelling perspective.

Disappearance at Sea: Mare Nostrum, in Baltic's ground floor gallery, doesn't assail visitors with heart-rending photos of desperate souls.

In the media there have been plenty of those visions of helplessness which can make you feel helpless, whereas this is subtle and visually absorbing. 

Curated by Baltic's Alessandro Vincentelli, it focuses on the perilous journeys taken by many refugees (one million during 2015 alone) fleeing wars in the Middle East and persecution elsewhere.

The Mediterranean (or Mare Nostrum, 'our sea' in Latin) stands between these desperate people and safety and many, as the exhibition title suggests, don't make it. "I was keen to draw attention to the reality of a terrible humanitarian disaster," said Alessandro. "The official figures say about 5,000 people died while crossing the Mediterranean to Europe last year but the real figure could be much bigger.

"This exhibition brings together 10 projects by artists and collaborations between artists and geographers and people from other disciplines."

It's clear that artists have been on the case for quite some time.

While there are new commissions, the exhibition also includes two prints dating from 2008 by Turner Prize-winning photographer Wolfgang Tilmans.

They show a cold sea and a pile of discarded life jackets and relate to a rescue mission off the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. The exhibition's main attraction, in that it invites visitor participation, is a virtual reality (VR) experience created by ScanLAB Projects and Embassy for the Displaced, a design-based collective that documents refugees' journeys.

ScanLAB Projects, specialists in large-scale 3D scanning, contributed to the TV series Italy's Invisible Cities, which had presenters Alexander Armstrong and Dr Michael Scott donning VR headsets to revisit uncannily recreated ancient sites.

Co-founder Matt Shaw, an architect by training, was at Baltic to install Displaced Witness, a VR record of a trip he made 12 months ago to Skala Sikamineas, a village on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Because it's just six kilometres from Turkey, this is where many refugees choose to cross in dodgy inflatables.

Survivors, after arriving exhausted and hungry, get a friendly welcome from the volunteers of Lighthouse Relief. "A lot of them are excited because they've made it," said Matt. "But they really haven't."

After the smile and the hot drink, they are bussed to special centres to be processed. Their ordeal is very far from over. Having used the 3D scanner to record at four specific locations, Baltic visitors can put on the headset and share Matt's view of the refugees' point of arrival, the camp, the lighthouse (built to signal dangerous rocks, it draws the refugees towards it, ensuring an often perilous landing) and the piles of life jackets and rubber boats strewn on the beach.

Don't worry too much about wasted life jackets. Matt said many of them are fakes, cynically sold to refugees.

The headset transports you to a sketchy version of these locations. You hear Matt's questions and the replies and you have to keep your nerve when apparently perched high on a cliff.

Near to this installation are the brilliant digital creations of Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, of an outfit called Forensic Architecture.

I put on the headphones and listened to the commentary as the tragedy of the so-called 'left-to-die boat' unfolded on a screen showing a digital map of the Mediterranean with moving pinprick lights for big ships and an illuminated snail trail tracking the forlorn progress of this doomed vessel.

It set sail from Libya in 2011 with 72 refugees on board but ran out of fuel less than half way to its planned destination of Lampedusa.

For a fortnight the boat drifted and the passengers resorted to drinking seawater as all those who could have saved them, and were in a position to do so (a helicopter twice hovered overhead), did nothing of the sort. In the end the boat was washed up - back in Libya. One woman died on the beach and another refugee died shortly afterwards, leaving just nine survivors who were promptly locked up.

In a heroic act of reconstruction, using digital traces and survivor testimonies, Heller and Pezzani tell the sorry tale in this work called Liquid Traces.

In a neighbouring darkened room is a film called Horizon by Londonbased Syrian artist Hrair Sarkissian. Hrair, unable to return to his home country where his parents still live, was at Baltic to explain how he used a drone to film - in real time - the crossing, well known to many refugees, from the Turkish fishing town of Kas to the Greek island of Megisti.

Tomo Brody met refugees in the 'jungle' camp at Calais, inviting them to tell their stories but filming only their hands.

The voices (in many languages but subtitled) are surprisingly soft and dispassionate as they relate their personal horrors; the expressive hands need no translating. The piece is called Humans After All.

James Bridle's Wayfinding is a clever piece of kit and looks remarkably similar to the Chartbeat screen in our newsroom which shows which news items are attracting most attention online.

Bridle's two-channel real-time installation gathers news headlines and tracks their use to gauge the climate of opinion across Europe with regard to refugees and migrants.

A compass-like arrow on the floor points in the direction of the greatest well of compassion at that time.

Among the headlines showing on Wednesday were "Ethiopia: UN denounces Trump's travel ban" and "Iran to stop using US dollar in response to Trump's 'Muslim ban'."

One of the most revealing exhibits isn't digital. It's a series of route maps made by artists in a Serbian village who, between 2013 and 2015, asked refugees to describe their journeys.

The maps, with crayon-drawn dots and lines, are like something from a children's book or a Tolkien novel. But each speaks of danger and desperation, with dangerous sea crossings, long walks through hostile terrain with no food, confrontations with "mafia" and rip-off bus and taxi fares.

The refugees who worked with the artists of the Skart collective, led by Djordje Balmazovic, came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Guinea, Senegal and Syria. Safety, it will make you think, is too easily taken for granted if you are lucky enough to live in it.

¦ Disappearance at Sea - Mare Nostrum runs until May 14.

The voices are surprisingly soft and dispassionate as they related their personal horrors


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GRAPHIC: <B Some of Jackie Karuti's work at the exhibition Mark PinderThere Are Worlds Out There They Never Told You AboutDisplaced Witness by SCANLAB Projects and Embassy For The Displaced offers gallery visitors a virtual-reality experienceMark Pinder


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 2:48 AM GMT 


'My job is to defend Australia': Malcolm Turnbull doesn't deny Donald Trump unleashed an attack on the his refugee deal - before slamming the phone down in 'worst call' to a world leader


BYLINE: RACHEL EDDIE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 750 words



Malcolm Turnbull has not denied Donald Trump told him he had his 'worst call by far' with the Australian Prime Minister as well as slamming the refugee deal in his first response to explosive claims about the two leaders' first telephone conversation. 

The president accused Mr Turnbull of exporting the 'next Boston bombers' to the U.S. and hung up 25 minutes into the call, which was expected to be last for an hour, an unnamed source claimed.

The prime minister refused to comment on the  Washington Post  report and suggestions their phone conversation over the weekend was hostile.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year.

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held offshore.

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban.

Mr Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'.

The U.S. President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.

'I'm not going to comment on these reports out of the United States about the conversation,' Mr Turnbull told a press conference from Melbourne on Thursday.

'Australians know me very well. I always stand up for Australia in every forum.'

He said it was better to leave the discussion out of the public domain.

'It's better that these things, these conversations, are conducted candidly, frankly, privately.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and every day to stand up for Australia and that's what I do.

'My business is being the Prime Minister of Australia. That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and to defend the interests of Australians.'

Mr Turnbull insisted the bond between the allied countries remained strong through the refugee deal.

'I can assure you the relationship is very strong. The fact we received the assurance that we did, the fact that it was confirmed, the very extensive engagement we have with the new administration underlines the closeness of the alliance.

'But as Australians know me, very well, I stand up for Australia in every forum - public or private.'

The U.S. president reportedly told the prime minister he'd spoken with four other leaders over the weekend - including Russian President Vladimir Putin - and 'this was the worst call by far'.

Mr Trump fumed about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take hundreds of refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, according to unnamed sources.

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told Mr Turnbull.

Mr Trump complained he was going to get killed politically and accused Australia of trying to export the 'next Boston bombers'.

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America would get out of honouring the deal.

A U.S. Embassy spokesperson on Thursday confirmed Tresident Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed.

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested the leaders move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, Mr Trump ended the conversation, Washington Post said.

The call was scheduled to go for about an hour, but Mr Trump ended it after 25 minutes.

The official statement about the conversation, released by the White House, told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasised the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said.

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'We discussed the importance of border security and the threat of illegal and irregular migration, and recognised that it is vital that every nation is able to control who comes across its borders,' he said.

The Saturday phone call was their first conversation since President Trump's inauguration.


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The Independent - Daily Edition


June 20, 2017 Tuesday  
Second Edition


World news in brief


SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 33


LENGTH: 622 words


66 million people were 'displaced' last year

The United Nations refugee agency said the number of people displaced from their homes across the world climbed slightly to 65.6 million last year. Officials said the escalating conflict in South Sudan accounted for the rise.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' annual report shows the total number of people displaced worldwide was about 300,000 higher at the end of last year than at the end of 2015. The total figure includes refugees, asylum-seekers and people uprooted inside their own countries. The report shows more than 10 million were newly displaced last year. 

Syria's six-year civil war remained the largest single source of displacement, with 12 million people. Figures are based on the agency's own data and on numbers reported by governments and non-governmental organisations. AP

Many hurt after flight hits turbulence

At least 26 people were injured when a China Eastern Airlines flight from Paris to the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming hit turbulence on Sunday, state news agency Xinhua reported. Passengers onboard flight MU774 suffered injuries such as fractures when strong turbulence caused them to hit the overhead lockers and be hit by falling baggage, Xinhua said. At least four people were in a serious condition, it said.

"We felt strong turbulence twice and minor turbulence three times. The process lasted about 10 minutes," Xinhua quoted a passenger surnamed Zhang, as saying.

This was the second incident the airline encountered within the week. On June 11, a China Eastern Airlines flight MU736 bound for Shanghai, had to make an emergency landing and return to Sydney after a hole emerged in one of the aircraft's engines. Reuters

Thailand: 'Alarming' suicide rate for Myanmar refugees

The number of recorded suicides and attempted suicides has soared at Thailand's largest camp for refugees from Myanmar, the International Organisation for Migration said yesterday as it called for urgent action to treat high levels of distress.

Twenty-eight refugees in Mae La camp have killed themselves and 66 have attempted suicide in the last two years, more than three times the global suicide rate, according to an IOM study published on the eve of World Refugee Day.

"The number of suicides is very alarming, and we urgently need to address this," said Harry Smith, IOM's project officer in Thailand. "There is a high level of distress in the camps which results from myriad reasons including lack of freedom of movement, uncertainty about the future, economic hardship and a lack of educational opportunities."

Mae La is the largest of nine refugee camps along the Thai­Myanmar border which are home to about 100,000 people. Many have spent their entire lives in the camps in what is one of Asia's most protracted refugee crises. There were 14 suicides in Mae La in the last year compared to one in the period June 2014 to May 2015. But the IOM said the jump could be due to a change in data collection. Reuters

Indonesia: 4 inmates escape from Bali prison

Four foreign inmates escaped yesterday from a prison on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, police said. Prison officers became aware of the escape while conducting a morning check of inmates at the Kerobokan penitentiary in Bali's capital, Denpasar, said Putu Ika Prabawa, an officer at Bali's Kuta Utara police station.

Prabawa said the four men were believed to have escaped through a 50-by-70-centimetre hole found in a wall that connects to a 15-metre-long water tunnel heading toward a main street.

He identified the four as Shaun Edward Davidson, 33, of Australia; Dimitar Nikolov Iliev, 43, of Bulgaria; Sayed Mohammed Said, 31, of India; and Tee Koko King bin Tee Kim Sai, 50, of Malaysia. AP


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MailOnline


January 28, 2017 Saturday 4:29 PM GMT 


Oscar-nominated Iranian director is blocked from attending awards ceremony, seven U.S.-bound migrants are stopped in Cairo and two refugees are held in JFK as Trump's immigration ban kicks in


BYLINE: EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1561 words



An Iranian director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony after Donald Trump signed off on his tough new immigration bans.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his movie The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards. 

His native Iran, which is where The Salesman was filmed, is one of seven countries listed in Trump's executive order that has placed a 90-day pause on visas and immigration to the U.S. 

Scroll down for video 

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted on Saturday morning that Farhadi would be banned.

'Iran's Asghar Farhadi won't be let into the US to attend Oscar's. He's nominated for best foreign language film... #MuslimBan,' he wrote.

It comes as visa, green card holders and refugees were blocked from entering the United States just hours after Trump signed the order on Friday afternoon.   

Seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were stopped from boarding a flight from Cairo on Saturday, while at least two Iraqis were detained after flying in to New York's JFK airport on Friday night.

Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.

In addition to Iran, the other countries on Trump's blacklist are Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans. 

Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.

'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted. 

Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation.

The visa ban has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.

Two Iraqi refugees, including one who had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years, were detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday, The New York Times  reports.

The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them.

WHAT WILL TRUMP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORDER DO? 

Ban refugee entries from all countries for 120 days. Refugees can be accepted on case-by-case basis, including if they are a religious minority facing religious persecution

Block refugee entries from Syria indefinitely.

Cap refugee intake at 50,000 per year.

Ban visa and immigration entries for 90 days from Muslim-majority countries on banned list, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

Suspend visa issuance to countries of particular concern.

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who had worked as a interpreter with the U.S. Army in Iraq, was travelling with his wife and three children at the time. 

The 53-year-old was released from detention on Saturday afternoon.

The other man, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son in Texas. He still remains in the custody of immigration officials.

Lawyers representing the two Iraqi men were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning. 

Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.

The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport. 

The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees. 

Dutch airline KLM says it had to turn away seven would-be passengers because they would no longer have been accepted into the United States.

'We would love to bring them there. That's not the problem. It's just that this is what the U.S. sprang on the rest of the world - that these people are no longer welcome,' Manel Vrijenhoek, at KLM's press office, said. 

She said the seven, who were from the seven blacklisted countries, were due to fly with KLM from different airports around the world. 

It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.  

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being refused admission.

'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night. 

TRUMP'S LIST FOR 'EXTREME VETTING' MEASURES: 

Trump's executive order provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm'.

They include:


Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. 

The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice. 

After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with. 

It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'

Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.

CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports. 

The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans.

'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said. 

It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order, Bloomberg reports. 

Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey.

Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'

It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.

The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.

Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.' 

The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.

In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.'

The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'

Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'         


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telegraph.co.uk


January 28, 2017 Saturday 10:46 AM GMT 


British passport holders in US entry battle as Donald Trump bans travellers from seven Muslim countries and court rules those who arrived with visas can stay


BYLINE: By Ben Riley-Smith, Assistant Political Editor and Ruth Sherlock and Roland Oliphant and Nicola Harley and David Millward


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 4189 words


British citizens travelling to America on UK passports will be blocked from entering if they have dual-citizenship with countries targeted in Donald Trump's refugees banned.

The US State Department said that Britons with dual nationality with the countries Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen will be stopped at the American border for the next 90 days.

The revelation, which broke late on Saturday night, sent Downing Street scrambling for a response and has triggered uproar from MPs. 

Politicians said tens of thousands of Britons could be caught up in the border chaos as Mr Trump's new immigration rules impact on holidays and business trips.  

It was unclear last night whether Theresa May was aware the rules change was going to affect Britons despite spending hours meeting Mr Trump and his top staff in the White House on Friday. 

Theresa May met with President Donald Trump on Friday.Credit: AP/AP

The US State Department said: "Travelers who have nationality or dual nationality of one of these countries will not be permitted for 90 days to enter the United States or be issued an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa.

"Those nationals or dual nationals holding valid immigrant or nonimmigrant visas will not be permitted to enter the United States during this period.  Visa interviews will generally not be scheduled for nationals of these countries during this period."

Mrs May had refused twice to publicly condemn Mr Trump's ban on refugees from those seven countries earlier in the day during a press conference in Turkey. 

"The United States is responsible for the United States's policy on refugees," she said after being pressed a second time to condemn the border tightening. 

<table>

I'm a British citizen & so proud to have been welcomed to this country. Sad to hear ill be banned from the USA based on my country of birth

- Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) January 28, 2017

Tory MPs expressed their "heartbreak" at the development last night and called for Mr Trump to urgently overturn the policy. 

Nadhim Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-on-Avon who was born in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, said he feared he would be caught up in the ban. 

"Just think of all the families who will feel like second class citizens now," he told The Sunday Telegraph. 

"I love the US, I love everything it stands for, but I cannot believe this is happening to British citizens in 2017. 

"Words cannot describe my sadness. I feel devastated  I would like clarity and a rethink on this. It is a terrible message to the world. I am heartbroken."

The Foreign Office, Number 10 and the Home Office all refused to comment when asked about the rule change on Saturday. 

A Government source said simply: "We are working really closely with the State Department on this."

Latest figures show that more than 250,000 people have dual British nationality who were born in Iraq, Iran and Somalia.

No figures are available for those born in Syria, Libya, Sudan or Yemen.

There was chaos and confusion at airports around America on Saturday, as customs officials sought to implement the executive order that prevents entry to Syrians indefinitely, all other refugees for four months and bans travellers from seven Middle Eastern countries.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America," the president said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. "Don't want them here."

Even as several foreign governments condemned the decision, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, who has sought to develop close ties with Mr Trump, avoided criticising the president's actions. 

After being asked three times if she condemned the decision to ban families fleeing slaughter in war zones, Mrs May said: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees."

Lawyers and human rights groups took legal action, filing lawsuits which argued that the orders went against both the spirit of the US constitution and the letter of American law.

The order, which came into force as soon as Mr Trump signed it on Friday afternoon, requires US border officials to turn away any person arriving from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for the next 90 days, whether or not they have a green card.

Donald Trump holds up Executive Orders he signed in the Pentagon on January 27, 2017.Credit:  UPI / Barcroft Images/ UPI / Barcroft Images

With only a few exceptions for diplomats and dual citizens, the order takes no account of whether travellers have already been issued with visas.

In announcing his "extreme vetting" plan, Mr Trump invoked the  September 11, 2001 attacks. But most of the 19 plane hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon - all countries not included on the ban list.

Within hours of the order being signed, chaos broke out at airports around the world as officials sought to understand and interpret the new policies. 

Mohammed Al Rawi, a graduate of California State University and former journalist with the Los Angeles Times, said his father had been hauled off a flight in Qatar as a direct result of Mr Trump's decision.

"My 71-year-old dad is in Qatar boarding LAX flight to come visit us and he's being sent back to Iraq. Some US official told him that Trump cancelled all visas," he wrote on Facebook hours after the order was signed.

Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an Egypt Air flight from Cairo to New York on Saturday.

Some airlines have warned that all passengers whose journeys began in any of the seven countries may be affected, even if their own citizenship is not on the "banned" list.

An Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend the ceremony in the wake of the orders, it was reported.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for The Salesman, which tells of a couple whose relationship is thrown into disarray after an intruder surprises her in the shower.  Mr Farhadi also won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation.

Hamaseh Tayari, a UK resident who holds an Iranian passport, who had been on holiday  in Costa Rica, found she was unable to board her plane back to Glasgow because her flight went via New York. She found her transit visa had been revoked.

Ms Tayari, who grew up in Italy and works as a vet in the UK told the Guardian she had   never experienced anything like this.

"I want people to know that this is not just happening to refugees," she said. "I am a graduate and I have a PhD. It has happened to a person who is working and who pays tax."

Matt Zellar, an army captain who runs No One Left Behind, a charity that seeks to bring to the US Afghanis and Iraqis who worked with the American military in their countries, said the bans had caused their programmes to be suspended.

Mr Zellar works with people who have been placed on death lists by the Taliban, Isil, or other extremist organisations for the time they spent working with the US military.

He told The Sunday Telegraph that the process of getting these men and their families into America had always been laborious, sometimes taking them up to five years to obtain a visa. But the executive order was forcing him mostly to suspend the programme.

 "Some have been waiting years, moving night by night and living away from their families to escape death squads," Mr Zellar said. "This closes out their last hope. Heroes and patriots who saved American lives are going to die for their service to us."

The executive order includes a potential loophole that says the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security may, on a "case-by-case basis, and when in the national interest, issue visas or other immigration benefits to nationals of countries for which visas and benefits are otherwise blocked".

But Mr Zellar said repeated efforts to reach the White House to get permission to apply this to former US military employees had failed.The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Watch | Donald Trump's first weekly address 02:21

The order also sparked concern in the business world. Google recalled all travelling staff members to the US following the order, and warned of the possible impact on recruiting top talent abroad.

"We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere," a Google spokesman said.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, wrote in a post yesterday that he would be working with Fwd US, a charity he supports, to develop protection for child immigrants brought to the US at a young age by their parents.

Iran said it would stop US citizens entering the country in retaliation to Washington's visa ban, calling it an "open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation". 

<table>

Awkward https://t.co/T3kAx2ACXa

- Rupert Myers (@RupertMyers) January 28, 2017Blow for Trump as judge allows travellers with visas to stay in the US

A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York issued an emergency stay on Saturday that temporarily blocks the U.S. government from sending people out of the country after they have landed at a U.S. airport with valid visas.

<table>

This temporary stay means people detained at airports will not be deported. Thank you to everyone who came out tonight! #NoBanNoWall

- Nat'l Imm Law Center (@NILC_org) January 29, 2017

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates the stay will affect 100 to 200 people detained at U.S. airports or in transit, but government lawyers could not confirm that number.

<table>

LITERALLY on the ground. Volunteer lawyers are working pro-bono on a Saturday preparing habeus corpus petitions for detainees at JFK. pic.twitter.com/ddUeQBi7AY

- NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) January 28, 2017

The ruling by Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York came during a hearing called after President Donald Trump issued an executive order blocking people from seven Muslim-majority from entering the United States and putting a temporary halt to refugee admissions.

Foreign governments (but no the UK) condemn refugee ban

"Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty," said  Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister said, speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with  Sigmar Gabriel, his German counterpart.

"The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people," said Mr Gabriel.

Germany has taken in more than one million refugees and migrants, mainly from the Middle East, since 2015.

 Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister said Trump's order would have negative consequences.

"The American president is dividing the Muslim world into good and evil with this," Mr Asselborn told the Tagesspiegel German newspaper. "The decision is also bad for Europe because it will increase the Muslim world's mistrust and hatred of the West."

Backlash from Democratic politicians and rights groups in the US

Many Democrat party members decried the ban as anti-American.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader said tears were "running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty" as a "grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon".

Prominent rights groups decried the move and several filed motions to oppose it including the American Civil Liberties Union, and the International Refugee Assistance Project.

The United Nations' refugee agency - UNHCR - and International Organization for Migration also called on the Trump  administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.

Inconsistencies in the Trump administration's claims







Syrian children pray in front of a grave in a garden in the Hamidiyeh neighborhood of Aleppo city, Syria, on Dec. 21, 2016Credit: Ammar Safarjaani/Xinhua Banned from the Academy Awards

They included an Iranian film director nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category who will be unable to attend this year's ceremony in the wake of President  Trump 's ban.

Asghar Farhadi is nominated  for  The Salesman , which tells of a couple whose relationship is thrown into disarray after an intruder surprises her in the shower. 

Meanwhile, Mohammed Al Rawi, a graduate of California State University and former journalist with the Los Angeles Times, said his father had been hauled off a flight in Qatar as a direct result of Mr Trump's decision. 

He wrote on Facebook hours after the order was signed: 

Five Iraqi passengers and one Yemeni were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York on Saturday. 

The passengers, arriving in transit to Cairo airport, were stopped and re-directed to flights headed for their home countries despite holding valid visas, Reuters reported. 

Some airlines have warned that all passengers whose journeys began in any of the seven countries may be affected, even if their own citizenship is not on the "banned" list.  

Vera Mironova, a Russian citizen returning from an academic research trip to Iraq, said she had been warned at check in that she may not be allowed into the US despite holding a green card. 

"I just talked to Lufthansa guys and since an hour ago they need to inform all people traveling from Iraq about this possibility," she said before boarding on Saturday afternoon. 

<table>

News: Air Canada says anyone with passport from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen CANNOT take flight to US, green card or not.

- Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 28, 2017Lawyers mount legal challenge to refugee ban

Donald Trump's decision to close America's borders to refugees was causing confusion and chaos at airports across the US, as people fleeing war zones were turned away by customs officials.

But the ban is now being met with several high profile challenges from lawyers at civil rights organisations who say that the demands made in the executive order may be illegal . 

The Immigration and Nationality Act, implemented by congress in 1965 banned all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin.  President Lyndon B Johnson said as he signed the law that "the harsh injustice" of the national-origins quota system had been "abolished."

The law states that  no person could be "discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person's race, sex, nationality, place of birth or place of residence." 

The detentions at airports around the US have prompted legal challenges. The New York Times reported that lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees held at Kennedy Airport filed a writ of habeas corpus early Saturday in the Eastern District of New York seeking to have their clients released. At the same time, they filed a motion for class certification, in an effort to represent all refugees and immigrants who they said were being unlawfully detained at ports of entry.

One of the Iraqis, Khalid Darweesh, worked for the US government in Iraq for a decade. Whilst the other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was coming to the United States to join his wife and young son, the lawyers said. 

<table>

This was my team. We fought together in Iraq. Guess the two most critical members. Now guess which two are no longer welcome in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/VD5Hy8arvA

- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 28, 2017

The attorneys said they were barred from meeting with their clients. When they asked who they needed to talk to to remedy this, a Customs and Border Protection official told them to "call Mr Trump".

One of the lawyers is from the Refugee Assistance Project. The group said in a statement that the executive order is "irresponsible and dangerous". 

The organisation said: "Denying thousands of the most persecuted refugees the chance to reach safety is an irresponsible and dangerous move that undermines American values and imperils our foreign relations and national security.

"IRAP works with hundreds of the most vulnerable refugees - children with medical emergencies, survivors of gender-based violence and torture, and Afghan and Iraqi allies to U.S. forces, to name a few - who will be left in immediate life-threatening danger. 

"For many of them, resettlement in the United States is their only option to live safely and with dignity."

Refugee Moustafa Abdulrahman, 2, from Kobani, Syria, peeks out while standing outside his family's shelter at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.Credit: Muhammed Muheisen/The Associated Press Google recalls staff after Trump immigration ban

The order also sparked concern in the business world. 

Google recalled all travelling staff members to the United States following the order amid concern about the possible impact on recruiting top talent abroad. 

A Google spokesperson said: "We're concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US.  We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere."

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, wrote in a post on Saturday that he was "concerned" about the impact of the orders and that he would be working with Fwd.US, a charity he supports, to develop protections for child immigrants brought to the US at a young age by their parents. 

The order signed by Mr Trump also imposes a 120-day suspension the US refugee resettlement programme, regardless of applicants' country of origin, while administration officials develop additional vetting procedures and decide which countries those procedures are "adequate" to ensure safety.

Syrian refugees are singled out as "detrimental to the interests of the United States" and banned from entering the country indefinitely.   

Donald Trump speaks alongside defence secretary James Mattis, right, and vice president Mike Pence,  leftCredit:  UPI / Barcroft Images/ UPI / Barcroft Images

The U.S. may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country."

The order suspended a resettlement programme that allowed 85,000 people fleeing war, hunger, and political or religious persecution, to be resettled in the US last year.  

Paul Ryan, the republican speaker of the House, said it was "time to re-evaluate and strengthen the visa-vetting process."

At a glance | Donald Trump's immigration ban

Many Democrats decried the move as "un-American."

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," said Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader.

Theresa May refuses to condemn US refugee ban

Theresa May refused to condemn Mr Trump's decision when she appeared at a joint press conference with Binali Yildirim, the prime minister of Turkey, following a meeting in Ankara. 

Asked by Faisal Islam, the political editor of Sky News, whether she viewed it as an "action of the leader of the free world," the Prime Minister replied that she had been "very pleased" to have met Mr Trump in Washington. 

She proceeded to praise Britain's record on refugees, but avoided commenting on US policy. 

"The United States is responsible for the United States policy on refugees," she said when pressed on the issue a second time. 

Mr Yildirim, commenting on the same issue, said UN members "cannot turn a blind eye to this issue and settle it by constructing walls".

France, Germany and Luxembourg also voiced disquiet at the decision.  

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French Foreign Minister said many of Trump's decisions worried the two U.S. allies, including new immigration restrictions.

"This can only worry us, but there are many subjects that worry us," Mr Ayrault said at a joint news conference in Paris with Sigmar Gabriel, his German counterpart.

"Welcoming refugees who flee war and oppression is part of our duty," he added.

Mr Gabriel said: "The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people." 

The United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on Donald Trump's administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the U.S. resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the two Geneva-based agencies said in a joint statement.

"We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race," they said.

The agencies hoped "that the US will continue its strong leadership role and long tradition of protecting those who are fleeing conflict and persecution".

Some 25,000 refugees were resettled in the United States between October and year-end under UNHCR's programme for the most vulnerable, the agency said on Friday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it would file a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the executive order on Monday.

"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," said Lena Masri, the group's director of National Litigation. 

Donald Trump on Muslim countriesPosition of athletes including  Sir Mo Farah unclear

The position of high profile British sportsmen born in the countries affected by the visa ban, such as Somali-born Sir Mo Farah and Sudan-born Ajou Deng of the LA Lakers basketball team, remains unclear.

According to the State Department the prohibition applies to citizens - or dual nationals - from the seven countries covered by Mr Trump's ban. 

Merely being born in the countries would not lead to an immigration ban, the State Department sources confirmed.

Both Sir Mo and Deng live in the United States and should they hold dual nationality, their cases for readmission into the country, were they to depart,  would be considered on a case by case basis by the Department of Homeland Security.

Canada's Justin Trudeau welcomes refugees

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a message for refugees rejected by U.S. President Donald Trump: Canada will take you.

He also intends to talk to Trump about the success of Canada's refugee policy.

Trudeau reacted to Trump's ban of Muslims from certain countries by tweeting Saturday: "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength WelcomeToCanada."

<table>

To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada

- Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 28, 2017

Trudeau also posted a picture of him greeting a Syrian child at Toronto's airport in late 2015. Trudeau oversaw the arrival of more than 39,000 Syrian refugees soon after he was elected.

A spokeswoman for Trudeau said Trudeau has a message for Trump.

"The Prime Minister is looking forward to discussing the successes of Canada's immigration and refugee policy with the President when they next speak," Trudeau spokeswoman Kate Purchase told The Associated Press.

Trudeau is expected to the visit the White House soon.

The prime minister has refrained from criticizing Trump to avoid offending the new president. More than 75 percent of Canada's exports go to the U.S. 


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to "ship the next Boston bombers" to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1676 words



Donald Trump slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

On Thursday afternoon the President took to  Twitter to slam the Obama administration for agreeing to take on the refugees in the first place. 

'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!,' he wrote. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump abruptly hung up on Mr Turnbull after just 25 minutes - when the pair were meant to speak for an hour.

But an indignant Mr Turnbull returned serve, telling 2GB's Ben Fordham: 'As far as the call is concerned, I'm very disappointed, the report the president hung up is not correct, the call ended courteously.' 

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about pleasant exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders. 

President Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 genuine refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, telling Mr Turnbull: 'I don't want these people'.

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement. 

Sky News sources claim President Trump was 'yelling' at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation, which took place on Saturday afternoon Washington time, Sunday morning Australian time.

Scroll down for video

WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIA-US REFUGEE DEAL?

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, President Trump ended the conversation.

'During call with Australian PM on refugees, Trump pulled phone away from ear and says he wants off call, which ends abruptly per source,' CNN reporter Jim Acosta tweeted.

Under the agreement reached with the Obama administration, Australian would take a number of South American refugees, currently in a processing center in Costa Rica, in return.

These refugees are predominantly Christian, according to reports.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Sky News reporter Laura Jayes said Australian government sources who took part in discussions after the call said Mr Turnbull viewed the president as a 'bully'. 

'What I derived from that was Malcolm Turnbull used this phone call to push back,' Ms Jayes said.

'He wasn't just sitting there being berated by Donald Trump, he talked about how important it was for (Trump) to honour the deal.'

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that President Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

'CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING': UN HITS OUT OVER 'OPEN-AIR PRISON'

Australia has been heavily criticized by the UN for its policy of sending migrants to offshore detention centers.

In November UN investigator Francois Crepeau visited the island of Nauru, where asylum seekers who arrive by boat are sent, and described conditions as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.

Mr Crepeau said Australia's policies 'have increasingly eroded the human rights of migrants in contravention of its international human rights and humanitarian obligations'.

And he continued: 'Australia would vehemently protest if its citizens were treated like this by other counties and especially if Australian children were treated like this.'

Amnesty International said in October that the immigration center was an 'open-air prison'. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. 

'There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 

TOUGH IMMIGRATION LAWS WHICH SEE 'BOAT PEOPLE' SENT TO OFFSHORE CAMPS

Offshore detention in Australia has been in place since 2001, and in 2013 Australia's mainland was excluded from its migration zone for people who arrive by boat.

Now migrants who arrive on Australian shores by sea are immediately sent to the island of Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

They stay in detention facilities while their applications to be accepted into Australia are processed. 

Although 90 per cent are ruled to have valid claims, they are not allowed to settle in the Australian mainland, instead being allowed to stay in Nauru or Papau New Guinea.

The policy has come under heavy fire, with conditions in the camp branded 'inhuman' by a UN inspector in November.

Supporters claim it deters migrants from arriving in dangerous vessels, and ensures refugees enter the country through proper channels.

In 2015 Australia agreed to accept 12,000 refugees from Syria. 

The previous year violence had erupted at a protest at the detention center on Manus Island, and a 23-year-old Iranian man was killed.

Turnbull has previously stated that Australians cannot be 'misty-eyed' about immigration, saying: 'We must have secure borders and we do and we will, and they will remain so, as long as I am the prime minister of this country.'   


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Express Online


June 14, 2017 Wednesday 10:02 PM GMT 


Poland tells EU to BRING IT: Warsaw vows to fight penalty for refusing to accept refugees


BYLINE: Will Kirby


LENGTH: 558 words


THE Polish ministry of foreign affairs is set to contest European Commission plans to penalise the country for refusing to accept any refugees as part of an EU relocation scheme.  

GETTY

Poland and the EU are lcoked in a battle over migrant quotas

The revelation comes after the Commission said it would prepare penalties over refugee inaction for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, said: "Europe is not only about requesting funds or ensuring security", but insisted that the move was "not a punishment" and the Commission could reverse its decision "if the governments reconsider their position".

Related articles Minister accuses Brussels of treating Hungary like a 'MISCREANT' EU states fire back at threats from Brussels over migrant quotas

In response, the Polish ministry said Warsaw had shown solidarity in the migrant crisis by protecting its external borders.

In a statement, it said: "In 2016 alone Poland seconded 433 Border Guard officers to take part in joint operations coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency , including a 227-strong deployment in Greece."

The ministry also said referenced its allocation of around 118.5million Polish zloty to measures in aid of victims of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq as an example of its efforts to forge stronger humanitarian engagement in the region.

GETTY

Ministers from the Eastern European Visegrad groups are ready to fight EU sanctions

The statement continues: "Poland also draws attention to its involvement and stabilising role along the EU's eastern border. 

"In 2016 Poland took in over a million migrants and refugees from Ukraine and the East, thus easing the migrant pressure on other EU countries. 

"We would also like to emphasise that no EU member state has so far fulfilled its commitments stemming from the 2015 relocation decisions.

"We reiterate our position that migration policy falls within the competence of nation states."

Poland and Hungary have failed to take in a single refugee between them and openly oppose the migrant quota scheme and its mandatory nature. 

The Czech Republic took in just 12 refugees last year and none so far this year and said it wanted out of the scheme because of security concerns.

Slovakia - the fourth member of the Visegrad Group of Central European countries - has relocated just 16 refugees out of the 902 it was supposed to take but will escape sanctions because the Commission is only taking action against countries that have not made pledges to take in refugees in the last 12 months.

GETTY

Europe has faced a growing migrant crisis since 2015

The Visegrad Group has relocated 28 refugees in total out of a combined quota of 11,069.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka that action was on the cards when they met in Prague last week.

And in an interview in German newspaper Der Spiegel Mr Juncker said: "I am for launching infringement proceedings - not to make a threat, but to make clear that decisions that have been made are applicable law, even if you have voted against it."

Related articles Rift in EU as Eastern European states take in just 1,600 refugees Ex-EU chief Schulz demands Hungary loses subsidies over migrant quotas Juncker says states opposed to migrant quotas must still take refugees 


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MailOnline


February 2, 2017 Thursday 1:19 AM GMT 


President Donald Trump 'slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to "ship the next Boston bombers" to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes' 


BYLINE: DANIEL PETERS, LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP


SECTION: NEWS


LENGTH: 1454 words



Donald Trump slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the 'next Boston bombers' to the United States during their first official telephone conversation. 

On Thursday afternoon the newly-elected president took to Twitter to slam the Obama administration for agreeing to take on the refugees in the first place. 

'Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!,' he wrote. 

Senior US officials told the Washington Post  that Donald Trump abruptly hung up on Mr Turnbull after just 25 minutes - when the pair were meant to speak for an hour.

But an indignant Mr Turnbull returned serve, telling 2GB's Ben Fordham: 'As far as the call is concerned, I'm very disappointed, the report the president hung up is not correct, the call ended courteously.' 

A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was 'the worst call by far' he had taken that day, after 'boasting' about pleasant exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders. 

President Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 genuine refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, telling Mr Turnbull: 'I don't want these people'.

It was the 'worst deal ever', he told the prime minister, complaining he was 'going to get killed' politically for following through on the resettlement agreement. 

Sky News sources claim President Trump was 'yelling' at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation, which took place on Saturday afternoon Washington time, Sunday morning Australian time.

Scroll down for video

What is the Australia-US refugee deal? 

The Obama administration and Turnbull government struck a deal to resettle some of the refugees being held offshore in Nauru and Manus Island in November last year 

The Australian government has a 'zero tolerance' policy towards illegal boat arrivals and only genuine refugees are sent to Nauru and Manus Island 

There are approximately 1,250 refugees being held in the Australian-funded offshore detention centres

A large majority of those refugees come from Iran, Iraq and Somalia - all countries on US President Donald Trump's travel-ban

President Trump reportedly agreed to honour the deal, on the condition the refugees would undergo 'extreme vetting'

The US President reportedly described it as the 'worst deal ever' in a heated conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday

Mr Trump indicated he was sceptical about what America got out of honouring the deal. 

After Mr Turnbull apparently suggested they move on and talk about foreign affairs, including the conflict in Syria, President Trump ended the conversation.

'During call with Australian PM on refugees, Trump pulled phone away from ear and says he wants off call, which ends abruptly per source,' CNN reporter Jim Acosta tweeted.

Under the agreement reached with the Obama administration, Australian would take a number of South American refugees, currently in a processing center in Costa Rica, in return.

These refugees are predominantly Christian, according to reports.

In response to revelations of the hostile phone conversation, Mr Turnbull remained tight-lipped on Thursday and said that he wasn't going to comment. 

'It's better that these things - these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them,' he said.

Sky News reporter Laura Jayes said Australian government sources who took part in discussions after the call said Mr Turnbull viewed the president as a 'bully'. 

'What I derived from that was Malcolm Turnbull used this phone call to push back,' Ms Jayes said.

'He wasn't just sitting there being berated by Donald Trump, he talked about how important it was for (Trump) to honour the deal.'

The explosive report is a huge embarrassment for Mr Turnbull, who has insisted in recent days the asylum seeker deal is solid and relations with Washington are fine. 

The United States and Australia have been close military and economic allies for generations, with Australian troops fighting alongside Americans in every military conflict Washington has been involved in since World War II. 

Australia is one of just four other countries the US shares security intelligence with under the Five Eyes alliance. The two countries have also shared a free trade agreement since 2005. 

The official statement about the phone call released by the White House told a different story.

'Both leaders emphasized the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally,' it said. 

Mr Turnbull on Monday described the call as constructive, saying the pair acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the US and Australia and committed to making it stronger.

'That's my job. My job is to defend the national interest of Australia and defend the interests of Australians,' he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

'You may wish to speculate about policies and politics in Washington, that's not my role. My job is today and everyday to stand up for Australia and that's what I do. ' 

He also thanked the president for 'committing' to honour the refugee agreement.  

About 1.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday the US Embassy in Australia released a statement that the deal would go ahead.

'President Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and Spokesman Spicer's comments stand,' a spokeswoman said.

'This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to this Embassy at 13:15 Canberra time.'

But it came after a morning of mixed messages from various official sources.  

On Wednesday it was reported that the White House had backtracked on the asylum seeker deal, saying that President Trump was still considering it.

White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said the deal had not been confirmed.

He said if it were to go ahead, it would only be because of the United States' 'longstanding relationship with Australia,'  The ABC reported. 

'Cruel, inhuman and degrading': UN hits out over 'open-air prison'

Australia has been heavily criticized by the UN for its policy of sending migrants to offshore detention centers.

In November UN investigator Francois Crepeau visited the island of Nauru, where asylum seekers who arrive by boat are sent, and described conditions as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.

Mr Crapeau said Australia's policies 'have increasingly eroded the human rights of migrants in contravention of its international human rights and humanitarian obligations'.

And he continued: 'Australia would vehemently protest if its citizens were treated like this by other counties and especially if Australian children were treated like this.'

Amnesty International said in October that the immigration center was an 'open-air prison'. 

It comes just one day after Mr Spicer told reporters Mr Trump would honour the 'one-off' deal with former President Barack Obama in November to resettle refugees detained on Manus and Nauru.

'Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. 

'There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them,' he said.

Last week Mr Trump placed a temporary ban on refugees being admitted to the US and other strict border measures targeting seven countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

On Tuesday, Mr Trump confirmed his administration would continue to honour the 2016 refugee resettlement arrangement while acknowledging a common interest in preventing irregular and illegal migration. 

'The president, in accordance with that deal to honour what had been agreed upon by the US government, and ensuring that vetting will take place in the same manner that we are doing it now, it will go forward,' Mr Spicer said.

The refugees are being held on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.  

Speaking to reporters at the G'day USA gala in Hollywood, Ms Bishop said Mr Turnbull would travel to the US for a yet to be scheduled meeting with the president. 


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Express Online


January 27, 2017 Friday 1:17 PM GMT 


Migrant gang 'burn down women's centre' just WEEKS after it opened


BYLINE: Jon Austin


LENGTH: 1039 words


A SPECIAL centre built to help and empower women and their babies was "destroyed by migrants" just weeks after it opened, it has emerged.

The Women's Centre at the refugee camp in Grande-Synthe on the outskirts of Dunkirk, northern France, was gutted by fire only a few weeks after it was officially opened by volunteers.

The centre was opened as a safe place for women refugees and their infants to get emotional support, help and information around feeding babies and young children, and health advice. 

It was funded by thousands of pounds raised through crowdfunding.

According to volunteers helping refugees within the camp, which has housed hundreds of migrants trying to get into the UK since 2006, it has been infiltrated by a migrant "criminal gang" that is believed may be responsible for the fire.

It is not clear if this month's alleged arson has been officially reported to the authorities, but details of it have emerged in online blogs written by volunteers who have visited the camp.

DUNKIRKREFUGEEWOMENSCENTRE*FACEBOOK

The gutted remains of the Dunkirk Refugee Women's Centre after it was hit by arsonists. Related articles Super asylum hostels for refugees coming to a town near YOU Refugees housed by YOUR CASH 'burnt down homes and attacked staff'

Maddie McMahon, a breastfeeding counsellor from Cambridge who embarked on an separate visit, wrote in a blog on thebirthhub.co.uk of her upset at learning about the fire after previously visiting the centre, and of the criminal gangs. 

She said: "The Woman's Centre is gutted. So are we.

"A devastating fire. The Woman's Centre was gone. Completely gone. The volunteers and some of the refugee women and children stood around in silence. 

"No one knew what to say. We hugged. We cried. We began to ask questions. No one seemed to know what had happened.

"What was clear was that the lorry container that was being converted into a safe, quiet room for the mothers had been broken into and gutted by fire, along with the main space. 

"A deliberate act. Whether it was pre-meditated or just the result of desperation and alcohol, we don't know.

"What we do know is that there are some very bad men. 

DUNKIRKREFUGEE*FACEBOOK

It is hoped that the centre will now be rebuilt by volunteers.

DUNKIRKREFUGEE*FACEBOOK

Criminal migrant men are believed by volunteers to have been responsible for the fire. Related articles UK bid to bring in 20,000 Syrian refugees in 'FAILS to stop... They fled Syria years ago...but now refugees say they 'MUST' come...

"A criminal element intent on making money from these people. Those still carrying their life savings with them will pay for passage. £3,000 is the going rate to be trafficked to the uk."

She had been on a mission to deliver buckets for sterilising cups, dummies, and other infant-related equipment to mothers at the centre.

She speculated over why the centre may have burnt down, adding: "Many of these homeless men were breaking into the Woman's Centre every night, burning anything that wasn't nailed down in order to stay warm. 

"As the weather gets colder and everyone feels a bit more desperate and depressed, alcohol starts creeping into the equation. 

DUNKIRKREFUGEE*FACEBOOK

The women's centre was set up with £8,000 of crowdfunded money.

Di Hammill, who runs the Wild Harvest School of Self-Reliance, in East Cottingwith, near York, wrote a blog about a mission to help women and child refugees in northern France this month.

She has spent the last ten years teaching wild food and self-sufficiency skills from the school.

She wrote: "We contacted the Dunkirk camp Women's Centre built just two or three weeks before because we saw on Facebook the building had just burned down. The centre had been open for less than a month. 

"We then wondered why no-one was talking about the fire in the Women's Centre, a centre where the refugees got to mix with western women and become empowered. 

"This may sound controversial speculation but no-one would answer questions about the fire. 

"The fact the centre was built with £8k of crowdfunded money and lasted only two weeks was a real shame for those who put all the effort/donations in too, lets hope the new one lasts long enough to make a difference."

WILDHARVESTSCHOOL*VIMEO

"Alcohol and machismo and organised crime...it's a volatile combination."

Ms McMahon said it was vital that permission was given "for a new structure to be built as soon as possible".

She said: "No one knows what will happen next. The deterioration of the camp will inevitably lead to even more tensions and deprivation and that leads to bad feeling and violence and a way in for organised crime, drugs and alcohol. "What was set up as a safe place for families with nothing is no longer meeting international humanitarian standards."

But, a post on her blog said it would probably just be torched again if rebuilt.

They said: "I worry that simply rebuilding the Women's Centre, without addressing the reasons for the destruction, will simply mean that there is another fire.

Related articles EXCLUSIVE: Inside squalid hotel where migrants get 'full board'... Hundreds of 'Jungle' migrants use quiet of Christmas to try to...

"This is a complex problem. The aim for everyone is surely to stem the tide of refugees to the camp, and to get the people currently there, out of the camp, and into safe lodgings."

A post on the Facebook page of the Women's Centre after the blaze said: "We would like to thank everyone who has contacted and thought of the Women's Centre since the news broke of the fire in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

"We are so touched by the messages of solidarity and support that we have received from individuals and organisations. 

"Please rest assured that everything we have lost we will rebuild. 

"The Women's Centre is not just a building, it is a network of strength, love and compassion and we are still here every day for the women, children and families of the camp.

"Please contact us for ways you can offer support."

Related articles EXCLUSIVE: Syrian refugees in Lebanon waiting to come to UK 'infiltrated by ISIS' EXCLUSIVE: English lessons for UK-bound Syrians scrapped as Home Office 'can't find them' Cameron 'warned ISIS run camps' from where UK is getting 20,000 Syrian refugees 


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Sky News


January 28, 2017 Saturday 11:24 PM GMT 


Backlash grows after Theresa May refuses to condemn Trump immigration ban


BYLINE: Tamara Cohen, Political Correspondent


SECTION: BUSINESS


LENGTH: 590 words



HIGHLIGHT: Theresa May is facing a growing backlash after refusing to condemn Donald Trump's immigration restrictions - as one of her MPs revealed the rules would stop him entering the US.


The ban prevents people from seven nations - including wartorn Syria - from entering the US for 90 days. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are also affected.

Iraq-born Nadhim Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-on-Avon, tweeted: "Had confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq. Even if we are not dual nationality.

"I'm a British citizen & so proud to have been welcomed to this country. Sad to hear I'll be banned from the USA based on my country of birth." 

He said he had been told by a US immigration lawyer friend that the ban applied because he and his wife were both originally Iraqi nationals, despite both now having British passports.

Mr Zahawi added: "A sad, sad day to feel like a second-class citizen. Sad day for the USA."

Mrs May initially dodged a question about her view on the new restrictions from Sky's Faisal Islam, but when pressed she insisted it was up to the US government to devise its own policy.

Labour and Conservative MPs reacted with horror to the policy announced by Mr Trump - and Mrs May's reaction.

Other world leaders, including Canada's Justin Trudeau and French President Francois Hollande have condemned the ban.

Outspoken Tory MP Heidi Allen tweeted the Prime Minister directly to say: "Strong leadership means not being afraid to tell someone powerful when they're wrong. It's an ethos this country is proud of Theresa May."

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: "Back from Copeland to read of the US ban on migrants from Muslim countries. Both wrong in itself and very worrying for the future."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all.

"Theresa May should have stood up for Britain and our values by condemning his actions. It should sadden our country that she chose not to.

"After Trump's hideous actions and May's weak failure to condemn them, it's more important than ever for us to say to refugees seeking a place of safety, that they will always be welcome in Britain."

As Mrs May declined to speak out at a press conference in Ankara, her counterpart in Turkey - a country with a dismal record on human rights - hit out at the US for the decision.

When pressed by journalists, Mrs May eventually said: "The United States is responsible for the United States' policy on refugees.

"The United Kingdom is responsible for the United Kingdom's policy on refugees and our policy on refugees is to have a number of voluntary schemes to bring Syrian refugees into the country, particularly those who are most vulnerable, but also to provide significant financial contributions to support refugees in countries surrounding Syria."

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston joined the chorus of discontent.

She said Mr Trump must not be invited to address both Houses of Parliament from Westminster Hall on his state visit later this year, pointedly insisting that "those who wish to fawn over him" should do so elsewhere.

The Muslim ban applies for 90 days to allow the Department of Homeland Security and intelligence services to carry out vetting - including for those who are already in the US. Refugees have already been detained at US airports.

As Mrs May landed back in London, a Downing Street source said: "We will always find ourselves in agreement on some things and disagreement on other things."

PHOTO:

Link to Image

VIDEO:

PM refuses to criticise Trump on refugees

Theresa May has declined to criticise President Donald Trump's policy on refugees when asked by Sky News.

Link to Video


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